Our lives have been gripped with terror and disrupted in every sense of the word because of the COVID-19 pandemic. I feel bad for everyone in lockdown who had a fast-paced life, lived paycheck to paycheck, or is without family and living alone. Of course, then I think about and I feel worse for those who contracted the virus, got sick, and recovered. They must have spent their sick period in terrible dread and are now traumatized. And I feel the absolute worst for people who are still suffering from the virus and struggling to stay alive.
When you take a long hard look at yourself, you realize the huge amount of things you have taken for granted in life, not to mention, life itself. The feat of being alive! Oh, how we have overlooked the fact that every breath we take is borrowed and numbered! Every second we spend alive is a countdown towards death. It sounds so depressing and scary, but it should be the motivation we need to make the most of life.
This is where my mind went spiraling when I got stuck in lock down. It takes an extreme to realize the importance of life. Death! Or the possibility of death! It’s funny how the possibility of death is existent every single second, but we choose to outright ignore it. Only when we are surrounded by it, and it’s literally shoved in our faces do we understand.
My motto in life is, ‘Take a good situation as a blessing, and a bad one as a lesson’. The current pandemic situation of course is terrible, but it sure has taught me a few lessons about life.
- I am grateful for my regular life, no matter how plain, simple or eventless it might be.
- I lack motivation to do what I want, not time.
- It’s very important to be tech-savvy to save time and be efficient. I shouldn’t have waited for the time to enhance my technical skills when there was no option BUT working online. It would have saved me much time at work as well.
- I rather enjoy cooking and can make pretty decent dishes if I focus and am enthusiastic.
- I can actually stay alive without fast food. Since I can’t order it anymore, I’m probably more healthy now than I was before the pandemic.
- There are great online courses available that are self-paced. Now I don’t have the option to complain about being too busy!
- I have learnt the value of social events as I have now witnessed how life is without them. I shall not reject or postpone them in the future.
- My parents need me more than I realized.
- Family matters the most in tough situations.
- I should definitely meet up with my friends more often instead of mainly interacting with them through SNS- can’t take our socializing for granted anymore.
- We can share the workload around the house to make everything easier.
- I actually can get tired of too much sleeping.
- Work is a great place to interact and have fun with people, (along with earning an income).
- I would rather work more hours than work from home.
- I must always have extra cat food in stock.
- Sunshine is important for life.
- Hygiene matters, people. If this pandemic has taught me anything, it’s the value of hygiene.
- Death, pain and despair can unite the world, (not a conspiracy theory, just an observation).
- Governments can only do so much; we need to take some responsibility as well.
- Everyone should know emergency numbers by heart and how to give first-aid and perform CPR at all life stages.
- It’s nice to have my wallet full since I can’t splurge anymore which is great.
- I have understood the importance of saving up. When your parents tell you to save up, THIS is EXACTLY the type of situation they’re preparing you for. I used to think it was pessimism, but now it seems more practical.
- When you’re facing death, your money, social status, qualifications, degrees or other material things won’t matter or help you, (unless you’re a health official in this case). Make sure you know which things you need to cherish in life.
- We should put health before ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. We should seek health before sickness which is one of the five things we should seek in life. Check out our ‘About Us’ page to read about the other four.
Let’s cherish all that’s good in life and stop complaining! We have loads of blessings around us; we just choose to ignore them. I hope I will live the rest of my life keeping in mind the lessons I learnt from this horrible experience, and never take life for granted again.
Please share your own experiences of living in lockdown. We would love to hear about them. Also, do check out the poem ‘Covid Blues‘ which captures the overall feeling of the pandemic.
