4 LESSONS I’VE LEARNED FROM LIVING THROUGH A PANDEMIC
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Can you even believe it’s been ONE YEAR since the start of the Pandemic?
Last week, I was listening to some episodes of one of my favorite podcasts, Morbid. It was a 4 part series about the West Memphis Three murders and trial. The first part of the series was recorded in late February of last year. They spent the first part of the episode talking all about the live shows they had planned + how they couldn’t wait to meet all their listeners.
Part 3 + 4 of the series were recorded between March 15 and March 22 last year. All of a sudden, all their shows were being postponed, but they were still hopeful that they’d be at the shows in May - and surely in July.
Oh, what we didn’t know just a year ago…
I remember before everything got locked down, thinking that this is just a virus - like the flu. We don’t do this for the flu - why on earth are people freaking out about this?!
Then, Miles’ Grandparents’ Day at school was cancelled. And then that Sunday night, all schools were cancelled.
Just one year ago TODAY, we spent our first of MANY days staying at home, away from our friends + family, in hopes to flatten the curve of the virus.
I don’t know about you, but my initial thoughts went from, “This is just a virus - it’s no big deal, “ to, “Are we going to have enough food to eat? Are banks going to shut down? But, surely, we’ll still have Easter services at church.”
I haven’t set foot in an in-person worship service in a year. Of course, we’ve found other ways to worship (thank goodness for Facebook Live and our drive-in services), but I still can’t believe I haven’t actually been inside a church in a year.
Despite everything we have gone through over the past year, there actually has been some good that has come from it. And while these are my own personal life lessons from living through a global pandemic for a year, I hope you can find some positives about the pandemic for yourself as well.
PANDEMIC LIFE LESSON NO. 1 >> BE FLEXIBLE
I quit my teaching job because I wanted more flexibility in my time. But, as someone who is very much Type A, planned out, and wants to have everything down on paper to the very last second, I’m not a very flexible person. (I’m not flexible physically either, but that’s a story for another day…)
I don’t do well with sudden schedule changes. When I sit down on Sunday night to plan out my week, that’s pretty much my bible for the week. I live and die by my schedule.
So, let’s just say, learning that my whole family would be learning from home indefinitely was not exactly something I was thrilled about.
Not only did it completely mess up my very well-planned schedule, it also meant no more peace + quiet at home.
I remember when that sudden change happened just wanting to throw a tantrum.
But, since things have been so uncertain for a year now (anyone really HATE the word uncertain at this point?!), I’ve learned how important it is to be flexible with my time. While I still want to throw a tantrum when there are sudden changes in my day, I’ve gotten a lot better at being OK with having to make changes and adapting well to those changes.
I don’t always like it, but I think it was something that I needed to learn because as a parent, there will always be wrenches in your well-laid plans - and this has made me much better at adapting to those changes.
PANDEMIC LIFE LESSON NO. 2 >> COMMUNICATION IS KEY
There’s a reason I have a blog and not a podcast… I am extremely internal and the things that I write are much more thought out than the words that come out of my mouth.
Basically, I am NOT a very good communicator. I can’t teach you by telling you, but if I can write it down or - better yet - physically SHOW you how to do it, the better I’ll be able to teach you. (Which is probably why I was so drawn to Phys Ed as a teacher.)
My husband is a talker. I am NOT. Even as a friend, I’m not great at taking the initiative on having conversations or getting together because I’d rather just keep to myself. I was the kid in class who NEVER raised her hand because it meant actually having to speak words.
NOPE. Not this girl.
But, when you’re at home with the same 3 people for an extended period of time, you’re pretty much forced to communicate all the time.
Honestly, I used to NEVER talk about my business with my husband. Shoot, I never even talked about teaching with my husband - and he’s a teacher. But, when you’re trying to understand schedules and who is doing what at what time, communication becomes essential.
My husband isn’t actively involved in my business now, but he certainly knows a lot more about what I do on a daily basis and more about the clients I work with. We talk A LOT more now than we ever had before in our 13.5 years of marriage, and it’s all thanks to being forced to stay home more over the last year.
PANDEMIC LIFE LESSON NO. 3 >> HAVE AN OUTLET
I absolutely LOVE my family. Last week, MacKenna asked me to go on a walk with her to the park and the boys would drive and meet us there. It reminded me of the early times in “stay at home” orders when we would go on walks almost every single day.
I LOVED that about being stuck at home. (OK, as an introvert, I really didn’t mind being at home as much as we were…) I loved the extra time we had with the family and how creative we got with our activities.
But, sometimes you just need to BREAK.
This is so true for moms especially outside of a global pandemic. You need to have some sort of outlet.
For me, it was waking up early to make sure I had some time for myself. I would workout in the basement and go for a run, and then get ready - ALONE. The hubs and I would try to find time to ourselves during the day when we could too.
But, overall, I think you just need to have something that is YOURS and that will give you a break from kids, work, etc.
PANDEMIC LIFE LESSON NO. 4 >> MAKE TIME FOR THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE
OK, so probably not just a pandemic takeaway, but I do actually feel like the pandemic brought me closer to my immediate family and my extended family. There are family members I still haven’t seen since the beginning of all this, but it forced us to call more, text more, and now, find more time together.
You don’t realize how important something is to you until it’s taken away - and the pandemic took away a lot of people in our lives. Matt lost his grandma in November (who was also like a grandma to me too) to the virus, and we wish we would’ve been able to spend MORE time with her before this all happened.
Now, we’re making it a point to see family more. It’s been a month since I’ve seen my brother + sister-in-law and that’s the longest we’ve gone since they moved back to Missouri in July. I WANT to spend as much time with the people I love as I can because you never know when we might not get to see them again.
And I think that is by far the biggest and most important takeaway from living a year in a global pandemic. While things aren’t “back to normal” yet, it’s funny how what used to be normal doesn’t feel normal anymore. But, I think I’m OK with this new normal because it’s brought out some pretty amazing things in the people around us.
While I don’t necessarily WANT to talk about the pandemic more since we’ve ALL lived through it, did you know that I actually HAD COVID-19 a few months ago? I felt so alone during that time and knew that there had to be other people feeling that same way. You can read all about my personal experience with the virus so you don’t feel so alone.
