A little over 10 months into what is called The Time of Coronavirus, we're all pretty familiar with the details of how it works and what the symptoms are. It's published and talked about everywhere, and as a matter of fact, you can do many things to avoid the virus itself, but you can't escape it's social and public presence. Thanks to the thorough daily screening at my kids' daycare, I now also remember the list of symptoms by heart, but I bet you do too.
At the top of the list there are fever, dry cough, and tiredness, and after them come the less-common as well as the most serious ones, which at this point we're scared to even think about.
Of course, all of this is relevant to those who actually get it, but what about how it's affecting the rest of the population? Yes, we care for those who get sick and make sure to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe and healthy, but it's been here for so long now, and its presence is so dominant, that we've all been affected by it in one way or another.
The majority of us might not be sick, but our life is now full of Covid-influenced symptoms, and we walk around carrying them like a runny nose during wintertime.
If you're experiencing one or more of the following symptoms it means that you live on earth in The Time of Coronavirus:
Over-eating Not only that stress makes most of us eat more (more ice-cream, more chocolate, more pretzels, NEVER more salad), but now we've also become roommates with our fridge, the only item in the house that I can't keep social/physical distance from. Going to the office used to force me to say goodbye to it every morning until we meet again for dinner, but staying home and working from the kitchen really doesn't leave much choice, doesn't it? No wonder that Stressed spelled backward is Desserts (insert facepalm emoji here).
Shortness of breath But not in its medical sense. It's like having a mild anxiety attack, but on a daily basis. If my daily to-do list was long pre-Covid, it is now twice as long. Action items like "buy masks", "wash masks" or "buy a hypoallergenic hand lotion for Eve cause she's taken handwashing way too seriously as if she's a surgeon at Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital" have been added to this already-long-enough list, and the thought of it becoming longer and more stressful if something like "get tested for Covid" is added, makes it almost impossible to deal with. Life is full of uncertainties, but Covid had made it so uncertain to the point where the only certain thing is that it's here to stay.
Loneliness Yes, we have family and friends, the kids go to school (except for when the city is in lockdown), we video-chat with people every day, and sometimes even meet them in person outside if the weather allows (whoa!), but all of this is not even close to the amount and form of connections we were used to having before the virus hit. It's like business as usual, only it moved almost 100% online, and no camera/microphone/good quality computer can fill the void created by the lack of real human connections/interactions. I get lonely, so lonely, living on my ownnnnn.
Inability to plan ahead
Being a Project Manager for over a decade, wanting to plan things ahead is in my blood. Most of my life depends on Excel spreadsheets or Asana tasks, which at this point have become...BLANK. Thanks to not being able to do anything because everything is closed / someone might be tested positive for Covid at any given time, I now have zero plans. Zero planned trips, zero birthday parties, zero nothing. nada.
Depressing much?
Low battery We might be able to keep our phone's battery level high now that we're home all day, but our mental (and sometimes physical) energy level screams "charge me!" most of the time, and there aren't too many charges to use at this point.
Thank God for family, food, and Netflix.
Covid-19 had changed everything we know about the world. What used to be the truth is now a long-lost memory, leaving nothing behind except for the list of symptoms above.
I'm all hope that these symptoms will disappear along with the virus once he finally decides to leave us alone. Until then, I'll eat something sweet, take a deep breath, (virtually) hug the people I love, try to recharge when I can, and plan for the day after.
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