Happy Sunday everyone, hope you’ve had a lovely week so far. I know we’ve all said it before, but who knew what 2020 was going to be like when we were celebrating the new year six months ago? When we all said ‘new year, new me’ I’m sure this is not what any of us had in mind.
I spent twelve weeks posting lock down diaries on the blog, thinking it would only be about three weeks when I first started. Now that it’s slowly going back to normal in the UK it felt like this week may be a good week to end the diary series with a few things that I’ve learnt during my lock down experience.
1. Being social is everything
Before all this a night out was great, but if I said no to something I wouldn’t feel terrible. I’d just wait for the next one. During lock down I felt so worried that I’d completely lose contact with everything if we couldn’t see each other. But everyone felt the same, and made a big effort with video calls and extra messaging. Now it’ll be a long time before I say no to a social event.
2. I’m more resilient than I thought
When I found out about the lock down going into place I was driving home from work, after another stressful day of working in the travel industry during a pandemic. When I heard it on the radio I cried. I went into panic mode, and then cried again when I went into the office the next morning to pick up my stuff. But that was the last time I got upset about the quarantine. Over the thirteen weeks (so far) I learnt that it didn’t mean my world was ending, and they was no reason to panic about it.
3. I’m also more motivated than I thought
I always thought I was a little bit on the lazy side – if I had the option of watching a movie or studying for something, I’d probably pick the movie. But with so much time I found that I was desperate to fill it with something useful – if not just to be able to give an interesting lock down story when everybody inevitably asks what I did. So far I’ve completed three online courses and started a fourth. I’ve also ordered three more to complete. I’ve launched my blog as a website, and have tidied my room thoroughly (several times).
4. I’m further in life than I thought I was
I mean this as in the next steps, mainly moving out. Before lock down I would look at my savings and think it was going to be another ten years before I could afford to buy a house, if I ever did. But lock down gave me the time to look into it more and the anti-social lifestyle to save more, so it’s been really promising on that front. I’m now coming out of lock down with an idea of what I’m aiming for, knowing that it’s realistic for me, and having a basic idea of what my next steps are.
5. That most of the human race is actually very lovely
There were a lot of moments within lock down that came from people’s actions, but the lock down itself was really eye opening. There were two types of people – the ones who were angry, and the majority who stepped up to make a difference. Obviously the NHS staff, supermarket staff, and all the other essential workers – but also people who could do what they do to bring a bit of positivity to the situation. Ella Masters with her Positivity Postcards, fashion houses stopping their designs to product scrubs, my mum and her friends sewing scrubs and face masks.
I think after the lock down, and in year’s to come, we’re all going to have different versions of it to tell people. I can’t quite work out if we’ll all bring it up, or joke about it when we’ve got over it – or whether it’ll just be that time that no one ever mentions. Either way, this has all been a massive learning curve and I definitely feel like I’m going to come out of it different from the person I went into it as. It’s weird, I almost feel a little sad that the diaries are coming to an end, but I can’t wait to look back on them in the future and remember how wild 2020 was.
xx
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