THE GOOD & THE BAD OF QUARANTINE

Writing about my own experiences isn’t something I’ve done much. But the more actively I read and write the more I’m enjoying putting my opinion out there. It’s obvious that times have changed, none of us could’ve expected it. But I also feel I’ve changed alongside them. I was moving too quickly, obsessed with getting where I needed to be as quickly as possible and not really enjoying anything I was doing…too busy trying to succeed instead.

Quarantine was an unusual time for us all. Anybody who couldn’t work, found themselves with a lot of time on their hands. While I was still working from home throughout, the time I saved every day on commuting to work, the gym was crazy. I definitely gained over an hour each day. I know this doesn’t seem like much, but to me it was everything. A little blessing in disguise of quarantine.

I’ve completely slowed down my pace. Taking time to relax, going for walks with my mam, catch up with my sisters, mastering my cooking skills. I’ve finally started doing everything that makes me happy. My mam was saying just the other day, how I’ve started to look and act like me again. Getting caught up in the real world, I completely lost the run of myself. Absorbed in being the best I could be, afraid to fail in my first real job, afraid to take a day off to relax from working out, afraid to say no.

These peculiar events have allowed me to find that carefree, positive attitude again. Working hard but not living to work. Giving myself rest days to recover my body. But most importantly to slow down and find the time to spend with the people I care about, doing things I enjoy.

In saying this, quarantine hasn’t been all sunshine. What goes up often has to come back down. And dealing with the bad days is a lot tougher when you don’t have anywhere to go.

When your social life is so quiet, sometimes you just wake up in a negative mood for no reason. Dreading the same routine as the last god knows how many days. I was longing to be able to go for a walk on the beach, to clear my head, when it was nowhere in my radius. Always wanting what’s not there and working myself into a worse state!

The Good

The downtime

How amazing has it been to just slow down? Living life in a rush, putting pressure on myself get one box checked and move onto the next.

Appreciation

I now have so much more appreciation for the little things (like coffee). I could live without a lot of conveniences from pre-quarantine, but I won’t lie and say that the day Starbucks reopened was not one of the best this year!

But really I’ve recognised I don’t need all the things I thought I did to make me happy. This is the happiest I’ve been in a long time and it’s come from making more time for the simple things, the things I’d normally let slip by when I’m too busy rushing around.

The Bad

Thankfully there has been way more positive sides of quarantine for me. I never thought I’d look back on a time of isolation with such fond memories and an optimistic mind-set. But there really was some tough days, those times you would feel just so far gone from your comfort zone that you couldn’t wrap your head around anything. I got seriously upset a few times when I couldn’t see my family. I realised I kind of take them for granted and when I was forced to isolate from them for so long it was awful. It’s certainly one takeaway I’ll walk away with. No matter how busy I am, I will definitely drop everything to see them from now on.

Anyway I hope everyone has had as many positives to take away from the past few months as I have. Hopefully as we return to normal we won’t forget everything we’ve learned.