It's almost a year since we shut everything down and locked ourselves into our homes. We are currently going through the third lockdown in Greece. Stores are closed, schools are closed, (mostly) everyone's working from home, and baby, it's cold outside.
As we are about to celebrate a year locked inside, going through this new (and hopefully last) lockdown, I thought I could make a list of the things we've learned during lockdown.
Disclaimer: Everything written in this blog post comes from experience, either my own, or people close to me. I do not speak in behalf of all people in this planet.
1. Grocery shopping becomes fun
This last year, we had limited options leaving the house. We were allowed to visit the supermarket, the pharmacies, pet shops and the like. At some point, my partner and I turned it into a market-hunting game, in which we were looking for the stores that gathered the less customers. When we found those stores, we stuck to them, so it's not that fun anymore.
2. The weather is your friend
When there is no place to go, it is important to keep up with the weather. Although it sound counterintuitive, knowing what the weather would be like every day helps you plan your days ahead and make time for a walk or a run or cycling. Getting out for something other than groceries helps elevate your mood, clears your thoughts and gets you moving, which honestly many of need to do more. Who else spent 2020 being a couch potato? ✋
3. Moving during lockdown sucks
It happened that we moved the week before the second lockdown was announced. Yeah, we got to move all our stuff in time, but there were things we needed afterwards, which was difficult to find. When our faucet broke, there was a ban in non-essential items in the big stores and all we could do was order it online, and pay ridiculous shipping prices, and wait for it to appear two months later, because the entire shipping process had melted down. Things got better by the end of 2020, but we had to live with broken stuff for some time. And don't get me started on household items like pottery.
4. Physical health decline
Being forced to stay inside for weeks at a time lead many of us to inactivity. Personally, I love working out, so I exercised every day during the first lockdown, and many of the people I know exercised as well. When the second lockdown came, I had some issues with my spine which had me laying all day. I was even unable to walk, so I started gaining unwanted weight as my muscles became weaker. Friends of mine, however, stopped working out, too. I suppose it's more psychological, since they had to spend every day in the same room for months. I can't say for sure if I would have kept going with my workout routine, was it not for my spine, but I suspect it would have been difficult to keep up.
5. Mental health decline
There is so much going on in a person's mind, I cannot even begin to explain this. The pandemic is nerve-wrecking. Our health has been jeopardized, our family's health, and our jobs, too. Many people lost their job, adding more worry and anxiety to an ever-enlarging issue. We had to stay away from our loved ones. We had to eat, sleep, rest, work in the same space every day for months. Work-life balance was lost, let's be honest. We were gaining weight. We had little to no means of entertainment. And this is just part of the list that lead to potential mental health decline. And that's for healthy individuals. People who suffered from mental health issues prior to the pandemic had it worse, so be grateful and show your support to these people, if you know any.
6. Work-life balance
Many of us struggled balancing work and life during the previous lockdowns. If you didn't, consider yourself a lucky one. For those working from home, knowing we didn't have to commute to and from work, was a trap. It's very easy to tell yourself, "I'm not going anywhere, I can work an hour or two after working hours." That's the trap. And it's worse if you've got bosses thinking like that: You don't have to be anywhere so why don't you do it now? As for us PhD candidates and master students, I saw an increase in pressure from supervisors, since we had nowhere to go, nothing else to do, they assumed we should be working on our projects 24/7. I have to say, working on one project for a long time is stressful, but having to work even after working hours and even when you have a block is even more stressful and might lead to the aforementioned mental health decline. Personally, I am very cautious with my daily schedule right now and I try to spend meaningful time in all important aspects of my life: career, health, home, relationships, pets, self.
7. PhD candidates are just students
This is a very personal issue I had with the system of "leaving home with the government's permission". Apparently, we are JUST students. Let me explain in a minute. For those of you not living in Greece, let me inform you that we had a system were we had to send a text message explaining why we had to leave the house, before we left. There were coded numbers from 1-6. For instance, 1 was for health reasons, and 6 was for exercise and walking your dog. None of these numbers related to work, so you had to have some kind of attestation from your boss (or yourself in case of self-employment), in which the place, days and hours of work are specified. PhD candidates have no bosses, and as far as the University goes, these papers were printed online, after request from the Ministry. So there was no way we could get one, because we aren't employed at uni and our professors couldn't sign them from us. It's the same for Master students and even regular students working on their theses. Some had subjects involving experiments, or live animals or plants which needed to be fed.
8. New recipes
On a positive note, lockdown gave me the chance to try new things in the kitchen. If you're new to my world of words, you should know I love cooking. Spending time in my kitchen is on of my favorite things. Before the pandemic I had little time to cook, so I would spent my entire Sunday preparing my meals. Usually, I would create 3-4 recipes and alternate the food during the weekdays. I ended up eating the same thing at least twice. Now that I'm free of commuting, I try to make something every day, no matter how fast or time-consuming it would be. And this has lead to more experimentation in the kitchen, which, frankly, gives meaning to my life right now.
9. Objects are overestimated
Other than the basic necessities like a desk to work on, a pair of shoes, and some items for the kitchen, I haven't bought much since last year. I must say, as far as minimalism goes, this past year has been cathartic. I came one step closer to understanding how overrated buying stuff is. Stuff we don't need. On the contrary, I even gave away some of the things I already owned.
10. Parents had the worst of it
I do not have children, but I've seen friends and relatives struggle. With schools being closed, and people working from home, not being able to hire a baby-sitter or have their parents look after their kids was crucial. Having the kids at home all day, helping them with their online classes, while having to work on their day jobs, too, was undoubtedly overwhelming for parents. And truth is, not all families could afford buying a new computer for each kid that had an online class.
11. Relationships
Staying locked inside was an easy way to fall into the rabbit hole of seclusion. Just because we had to social distance, didn't mean we had to be isolated from the world. With all these social apps we have today it isn't difficult to keep in touch with people that matter. And even though this might seem obvious to most, it is not. While extroverts could've been on their phones all the time, or hiking with friends as a means of exercise and socialization, introverts found it hard to initiate a call or a virtual meeting. If you think an introvert is avoiding you, they're probably not. They're just having a difficult time sending that first message, and kind of hopefully expecting you to send it first (coming from an introvert myself, with extrovert tendencies).
12. The economy
I don't believe there is one person in this planet who didn't realize how fragile the economy is. Market volatility and uncertainty increased with the pandemic without prior notice. Businesses were shut down. People lost their jobs. Artists had a difficult time getting by. Not to mention families who had to buy computers they couldn't afford so their kids wouldn't miss on their education.
13. Who we are
The ultimate lesson we learned locked inside our homes for the better part of 2020 was who we are and what we stand for. I don't suppose we would ever get the chance to spend so much time with our thoughts and analyze ourselves. I know for a fact I am a totally different person now than who I was a year ago. And I don't mean it as good nor bad. I invested in myself and spend a hell lot of time trying to understand my thoughts and emotions, and for one thing I know more about myself than I would have, had it not been for the lockdowns.
After adapting to this new lifestyle, it is difficult for me to imagine a life where I'll be able to go back to Uni and take the bus every day and go for a drink or two on the weekend. I don't know if it's a variation of Stockholm Syndrome kicking in, but I've learned to love my freedom working from home. I get the chance to take breaks when I need them, without having to explain myself, or worse, ask for permission. I can take a short walk around the block at noon if I need some air, or even do the laundry if I have to without having to wait for the clock to chime work day's over. And the best part: no-one could complain why I'm not at my desk. Of course there are disadvantages, but I love my home and I love working from home. I love being able to work around my schedule as it pleases me, if I am able. Also, at home I have a desk and chair suitable for my needs, which aren't available in the office. I wouldn't want to go back to a painful spine again in the future. As long as I'm capable, I'd love to continue to work from home.
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