“These are unprecedented times.” That’s been a common phrase that I’ve been hearing lately from political leaders, healthcare professionals and my peers. It’s a strange feeling to have your whole life turned upside down in a matter of a few days and to figure out what your new “normal” is. To me, I think the hardest part of this is the uncertainty of it all. The fact that things change every hour, and there’s always a new update about what’s being cancelled and what new plans are going to be in place to help the economy and community survive this.
It’s crazy to think about how about 2 week ago, we were only hearing about how bad it was in other countries and how “it’s not going to get that bad here.” Two weeks later and look where we are now. Entire industries are completely slashed, while many people are figuring out how to work from home and every day we are asking ourselves, what’s going to happen next? How long is this going to last? Two weeks ago, I was having dinner with my roommates from university and we were talking about what we were going to do that weekend. Two weeks ago I got a job offer. Two weeks ago, I was planning to go to London that upcoming weekend for a large campus event. Then within a few days, everything changed.
Within a few days, panic started rising, and people began to create contingency plans. Companies put in place how to migrate everyone to work remotely and started backing up systems and information. People started purchasing groceries and essentials in larger quantities. Events started being cancelled. Friends started asking each other if they were working from home yet and some were shocked that others were still forced to go into work. The beginnings of uncertainty started breaking through our picture of normal.
After a week, most companies have either laid people off or asked people to work from home for a temporary 2-3 week period. Many people had to reorganize their homes to accommodate a workstation for themselves and/or their family. Restaurants, retail shops, and more were closed temporarily. Roads were quiet and people were cautious while walking around. A feeling of eeriness and uncertainty became the new normal for us.
Many of us have adopted social distancing for about a week now and with each passing day, it seems like that initial two to three week period is going to extend to months. For someone who thrives on planning and organization, this feeling of uncertainty is killing me. The feeling of not knowing what’s going to happen next. Not knowing what tomorrow will bring. The feeling of yearning for more information while watching our Prime Minister and Premier speak to us on a daily basis, with a glimmer of hope that each day will be better than the last. My mind has run crazy going through a gagillion different scenarios of what the next day, week, or month will look like and how I should optimize my life to be prepared for that.
There’s also the feeling of lost control that’s taken over. The feeling of helplessness and that there isn’t much that we can do to change the situation. As much as we’re told to stay in our homes and to practice social distancing, it can be hard to feel like we have no control over what happens.
Our generation has been brought up with instant gratification and being able to have an answer given to us within seconds or to see a progress within minutes. This whole pandemic is the complete opposite of that. There are no clear cut answers. Are you able to see someone if they haven’t been sick within a two week period? Can people who had the virus get infected again? There is also no instant progress. We won’t see the effects of social distancing until a few weeks from now and while we wait, we have to continue social distancing, which is not what we’re used to.
As much as I, along with maybe the rest of the world, has been stressing and getting anxious about the uncertainty of this pandemic, I think one lesson that I’ve truly learned from this is that I need to let go and live in the present moment. In this current situation, we’re literally forced to live day by day and to adjust as we get new information. Learning how to be flexible and to let go of plans and and control is something that is relatively foreign to me, but if I don’t learn this skill, the amount of stress and anxiety will overwhelm me.
As hard as it is right now, I think something that really resonates with me is the following quote from The Good Place that Claire Marshall (@heyclaire) posted on Instagram:
Something I’ve prided myself on in the past is being optimistic and continuously looking on the bright side of life, but with so much negativity surrounding this current situation, and quite frankly, 2020 in general, it’s been hard. But I think I’ve realized that adding more negativity and stress to the world doesn’t really help anyone. It’s ok to feel down and upset at the current situation and maybe there are better ways to vent out these negative emotions other than spewing them into the world. But I think what we all need right now is a little peace and positivity from each other because the only way to get through this is by working together and collectively sacrificing a little bit of our old “normal” until we can create a new “normal.”
A few ways that I’ve adopted a more positive mindset over these past few weeks is to simply find things that I’m grateful for, rather than focus on the things I don’t have. Last week, I ended a job and had my last day there by working from home, rather than being able to go out for lunch with my coworkers. But I’m grateful for the kind words and the wonderful work experience I had at this job. For a week now, I’ve been unemployed, as this was intended to be a ‘break’ for myself before I started a new job, but it’s now been difficult to spend all my time at home with my family. Instead of wallowing on all the things I could have been doing if this pandemic wasn’t happening, I’m grateful to be able to hone in on the things that I didn’t have time for before, such as exercising, learning to cook, exploring creative endeavours and spending (some) time with my family. I’m about to start a new job next week and instead of being sad that I won’t be able to meet my new coworkers in person or get to set up my desk, I’m grateful for the opportunity to still have a secure job at a time like this.
Overall, this pandemic has made me rethink how I want my perspective on life to be and to remember to be grateful for all the things I do have instead of focusing on what we’ve lost.
