My World During COVID-19
How I found ways to be resilient, and how others can, too
Editor’s note: This essay is part of Telling Our Stories: Reflections on the Pandemic. We invited readers to share their experiences of the past year, and selected 12 essays for publication on Next Avenue. Read the full collection.
I grew up an only child, my daughter is an only child and she has a 15-year-old son. This has made our relationship very close. My daughter, who is an RN, lives approximately 47 miles away from me. The township I live in was one of the first to mandate the stay-at-home orders. The first two weeks were unbelievable; it was like walking around in a bad dream.
You were afraid of this unknown thing that we could not see or understand, and you could tell that the people at the Centers for Disease Control did not understand it either.
My daughter and I would talk to each other every day, sometimes two or three times a day. But now, we could not go out for dinner together, go to a movie or just hang out and I missed those things very much because we would have so much fun together. It was a frightening time to be alone with the unknown.
What I learned about myself is that I am a lot more resilient than I thought I was. I live in an old courtyard building with 40+ stairs and no elevator. I also have severe osteoarthritis in both knees that, along with COVID-19, prevented me from going outside to get the things that I needed at home.
I realized that my mental state was being affected, so I started doing something different every day.
At first, I was really feeling sorry for myself; my daughter was miles away from me, I was quarantined in my home, I have pre-existing health conditions and even if I wanted to get out, I was sometimes in too much pain to attempt to walk the stairs.
I was a real mess and began to become depressed. I realized that my mental state was being affected, so I started doing something different every day.
I knitted a cap (cute but lopsided), learned online how to do embroidery, purchased a virtual reality game that has meditation games on it, wrote in my journal thoughts or poems that just popped in my head, read a Bible verse or just prayed.
I have also gotten closer to other family members, by just calling to check in on them. I have found that lot of them are in the same boat as I am in, and sometimes we end up talking for hours. These things have helped me to cope and bounce back from the depression that was trying to take over.
I plan on continuing to practice my daily fun and spiritual things to do each day and I hope that others will also try and do the same. Find something new to do every day or go back to something that you started a long time ago and complete it.
You don't have to worry about how it will look or what others think, as long as it makes you happy. Impress Yourself, Inspire Yourself, Be Yourself and don't let this thing called COVID-19 steal your joy.
I hope others will realize that if you could make it through this past year, you can make it through anything that life throws at you. By the way, I got surgery on both knees. I am ready to dance.
I live in one of the Western suburbs of Chicago. I have been working from home for the last year due to COVID-19. I love to travel and hope to go to Tanzania or South Africa once things open up. My other passion is dancing which I haven’t been able to do because of my limitations. Now that I have my new knees, I hope to be able to dance until I am exhausted. Read More
