Quarantine & K(Ch)ill

It would be an understatement of the century to say I have never imagined I would be writing something like this, in my lifetime. I’m sure you share the sentiment, and you’re as confused, pissed, anxious, tired, and blindsided as I am. As everyone is. We all planned something epic for this year, never have I ever talked to more people with such precise clarity about what they’ve planned to do in 2020. Achieve. Accomplish. Overcome.

Instead, we got HBO’s ‘The Leftovers. If you’ve never watched that show, now’s the time. You’re in it.

The silver lining, if there’s any; our collective clarity wouldn’t be achieved otherwise. No jobs, relationships, clothes, or vacations we all planned would give us the clarity we expected this year. We needed a shift, and we thought we are the shift. We thought we can orchestrate our own growth, only to end up the same as every year.

We need to be shifted off our axis in order to get there. But also, I’m not going to sit here and say we deserved it, the earth got back at us, how all this has a meaning; people are dying, and there’s nothing deserving about that.

There’s nothing poetic or meaningful about death.

I found my meaning in all of this by following this equation: people are suffering and dying, you owe it to make this count. Whether it’s a sort of personal growth that wasn’t possible in any other situation but something this challenging; whether it’s learning more about people and finally discriminating against selfishness, carelessness; we need to make this time and this situation COUNT.

As you already figured out yourself, this is the situation that heightened absolutely everything. We found exceptional goodness in people, we bonded with some people we lost touch with, we made peace with people we fought with; and on the other end of the spectrum, we felt shivers down our spine seeing how careless and dangerous in crisis some of our closest friends are.

Life is never going to be the same again. Our lives are divided into two parts. Before the pandemic, and after. We will forever divide people in our lives and the society in general by how they acted during this time. Never forget this. When this is long gone, never forget who endangered others by refusing to let go of their lifestyles.

Before the pandemic, stupidity was annoying but rarely dangerous. Stupidity was frowned upon in very light, funny ways. After the pandemic, we realized stupidity is dangerous. Carelessness is dangerous. Superficiality is dangerous. Dangerous for LIFE.

If you follow me on social media, you know I felt very strongly about how people around me are handling this crisis. We all got angry. Angry at the situation and the unknown. Angry at governments feeling they could do more to protect us or inform us. Angry at people recklessly denying this situation, endangering others. We got angry. Then scared. Then anxious. Then annoyed. Then afraid. Than angry. And like that in circles.

And being locked in the house doesn’t help any of those feelings.

But think about this. The whole planet, every single corner of this world is dealing with the exact same thing. Did you ever felt more connected to another human being since you’ve been on this planet?

It’s very hard to draw positives from this situation; some people aren’t as fortunate as us to have the privilege of using this crisis to just learn, overcome, and grow. While we can use it to our advantage, this once-in-lifetime phenomenon that will bond 3 or even 4 generations, we can use it to understand, comfort, care, protect, inspire and bond with each other.

I talked to many of you during the course of the lockdown and I saw (heard) the majority of you handling this quarantine exceptionally badly. That surprised me, as the part of being locked in my house is the easiest part of this situation for me.

I almost joked with a friend the other day, as much as it’s possible to joke in this situation, and said - I have been preparing for this all my life. While most of you people draw energy from being out in social settings, for me, my alone time and my solitude are what’s making me sane enough to even face the world.

Knowing me, and seeing how social can be, I know it’s hard to believe I’m an introvert. But my solitude and alone time is exactly why I can perform so well on the outside. If you want to know more about it, you can read an article on my condition.

Hearing all your stories telling me or texting me something I said or posted made you feel better; even a simple heartwarming video; I decided I could share with you the introvert’s tricks that could help you handle the house arrest better. It’s mentally taxing, I understand. No one is unaffected. And people are suffering in silence, locked away. We don’t need to do this alone.

We don’t need to suffer in silence, locked away in our homes. This is the only time in your life you have been dealing with the exact same thing as every single soul on this planet; your pain, confusion, and fear of uncertainty is UNIVERSAL.

You are not alone!

This pandemic is about people, connection, unity. You will prevail over this because others will help you. I will help you. You will help me. We all will help each other. We are not helpless and we have plenty of resources to help those in fear, those with anxieties, or just those who are bored, aimless, and unproductive.

You are allowed to be all of those things. You are allowed to be afraid, confused, and you are allowed to feel unproductive. You are allowed to handle this situation however you can, and not how others handle it.

You can use this time to do something or do absolutely nothing.

Please take my advice and don’t think about the future now, as I see that’s the source of the biggest frustration among people that contacted me. The only job you have right now is to survive. Thinking about the future, at this moment while we still don’t even know what that future will be, is useless. Whatever the future will be, you’re not going to be facing it alone.

It’s not just your uncertainty. It’s EVERYONE’S. We'll find ways.

Until then, check out my Instagram stories daily where I’ll share different people giving their perspectives, ideas, tricks, and techniques on how to survive this time the best we can.

For now, let's embrace uncertainty and join the conversation!