Quarantine blues

Corona here, corona there, corona everywhere – welcome to spring 2020. You can’t watch the news if you don’t want to hear a dozen things about corona. On the other hand you want to stay informed about what’s happening in the world. You can’t open social media apps, because all you’ll read about is the disease that’s slowing down our lives – but at the same time opening exactly these apps is the only way to stay connected with friends. Outside it’s turning summer, but government says ‘please stay inside’. You finally have time to declutter, but ‘please don’t, we can’t deal with all the garbage at the moment’. Since most of the shops are closed you want to order online. However, ‘please don’t, because local shop owners need the business when the crisis is over. Besides, it only produces more garbage we can’t handle’.

I get that we need to get this virus under control, and staying inside and doing nothing is (probably) the best way to achieve this and to save lives. But what’s left of this thing called ‘life’ anyway?

I really like reading, and it’s probably my ‘go to’ – thing to do when I feel overwhelmed. However, what do I do once I’ve read all the books I have at home, some of them even twice? Order online? Oh no, wait, I shouldn’t do that, I should rather buy new books once local shops are open again. Okay, no reading then. Hey, I want to move into my own apartment in fall, I could finally sort through all my stuff and throw out what I don’t need anymore, great! But – government says you shouldn’t do that, because of all the garbage. Damn it. Well, I guess then there’s finally time to study for the final bachelor exam – wohoo.

7 or 8 hours later I’m done with studying, because my head’s full and I can’t concentrate anymore. Now it’s time to do something fun! Go out to get drinks with friends – ahhhhh, no, bars are closed. Hm, then go see a movie? Nope, cinemas are closed too. Okayyyy, staying home it is then. But that’s fine – I love being creative and normally I don’t have that much time for it. What could I do? After an hour of searching for a diy-project that’s maybe lying around somewhere I give up, because of course I didn’t buy a bunch of stuff for diy-projects two months ago, just in case there would be a lockdown because of a virus. Right, like that’s ever gonna happen. Well. Order online instead? Wait, we’ve had that problem before, not possible. Ahhh….I guess it’s gonna be another evening with Netflix on the couch then.

I totally get that things could be way worse, in Austria we have everything we need to “survive” – enough food, a roof over our heads, Internet to stay in touch with our friends and so on. I enjoy the time in quarantine as much as possible, because when am I ever going to get that much time at home again? But I can’t help it – sometimes I feel kinda trapped. I want my ‘normal’ life back. I want to go back to what I’m used to – going out whenever I like, meeting my friends wherever I like. I hate this situation, let me out!

But suddenly there’s a question popping up in my head. There’s a little voice asking me: “What part of ‘normal’ is it even worth going back to?”. Hm….that little voice has a point. I guess that’s something to think about while this quarantine still lasts. Maybe I can do something useful in this time after all.