“WHAT’S NEXT in your quarantine to-do list?”
Friends and family have asked me this question. What else is there to do now, anyway? I’ve tried my hand in the kitchen to make bread that does not rise, and to prepare baked sushi that is several minutes past its best baking time. I’ve tested out my green thumb by tending to once-a-week watering of cacti and succulents (spoiler alert: They’re still alive!). I’ve even streamed countless hours on Netflix—either by myself or with friends through Netflix Party (now Teleparty) over the social media application of the pandemic, Zoom.
Wake up, eat, work, leisure, sleep, and repeat: It’s as if the same day has been on constant replay since March 15. Nine months in lockdown, nobody expected that we’re still shuffling within our own spaces at home, still finding which routine works best, and still attempting to comprehend everything that’s happening.
Thankfully, these nine months have given me spaces for reflection. One of these is about happiness. I learned that discovering happiness amid the pandemic doesn’t come from how many Coursera certificates I’ve finished, how many webinars I joined, or how many hobbies I picked up and (unfortunately) dropped midway. Happiness, in my opinion, comes from the little things. These may be receiving messages from friends, getting to know the people around you (physically or virtually), or even remotely helping with donation drives and fundraising programs. These little things value human interaction; it’s this happiness that I’ve recently learned to rediscover.
I used to take these moments for granted. Ironically, these now influence who I am and what I value. The pandemic has reshaped how I view myself and the world. While in this new abnormal (I don’t believe we should get used to the phrase “new normal” since nothing about this situation is normal—or worth getting used to—in the first place), there seems to be much more time. Case in point: No more travelling to and from school means that three hours are freed up in my weekday. This time is spent elsewhere. I read a quote from Nobel-winning economist Daniel Kahneman that reads: “The easiest way to increase happiness is to control your use of time. Can you find more time to do the things you enjoy doing?”
In the age where social distancing rules should strictly be followed and face-to-face interaction is as limited as it gets, the pandemic taught me to value human interaction in whatever form it is available. The quarantine has given me more than enough time to do just that. I’ve learned how to better understand my family, to genuinely know and care about the people who I remotely work with, and to curiously learn more about the national situation.Everything now occurs through desktops and cell phones. Despite this, human interaction is the happiness that I took for granted, recently learned to rediscover, and what I’ve learned to value–now more than ever.
