How I am Surviving Mitigation during the Pandemic
I don’t know about you, but when I made the decision for our family to self-isolate back in mid-March I didn’t realize how difficult that would be. I didn’t want to be the one to bring this horrible virus home to him. I did it because my husband had triple bypass surgery in October and recently found out he has diabetes. It was a personal choice and not one I took lightly. The Governor in our state made the same decision for everyone shortly after. All of a sudden corporate businesses and call centers were moving remotely in a matter of days. Non-essential businesses were forced to close practically overnight. There was little time for anyone to prepare.
Then suddenly everyone started noticing the essential workers. The truck drivers delivering food to your local grocery store. The workers in the grocery store filling the shelves so you had food, cleaning supplies and other essential items to buy. Suddenly toilet paper became a hot commodity. I still don’t understand that one. The day it seemed to run out in my area was the day after I bought one package of toilet paper and one package of paper towels like I normally do for my family of 5. I was laughing at my friend who was going store to store only to find they were all sold out. Who knew I would be purchasing baby wipes later to survive the toilet paper shortage! Crazy times!
If only all we had to worry about was the lack of toilet paper and cleaning supplies. But there are other essential workers that we valued even more now. The hospital workers from the doctors, nurses, medical assistants to the admins and janitors keeping everything sanitary. These were the heroes, the saviors working tirelessly to fight the good fight while risking their own lives every day. How could we even imagine that our country would not be prepared? How could these brave souls not have the safety equipment like PPE and masks available to them? The fear of not having enough ventilators if this virus spread too fast. The local and state governments worked together to come up with a solution. In my state on the east coast, 7 states decided to ban together. The people in local communities inspired us all by making masks for the health workers and each other because eventually we would all need to wear masks.
Local restaurants delivered free food to them, despite the negative impact of mitigation to their businesses. All dine-in eating establishments and bars were closed, practically overnight. Many were able to switch gears and offer curbside pickup and delivery options. Everyone was slowly adjusting to this new “normal”. Many purchased gift cards from these local restaurants to help keep them afloat. Others like myself ordered from local restaurants at least once a week. We all did our part. We all continue to do our part.
As many of you know, I love to travel. Many of my posts are about my many family and couple vacations. Unfortunately, travel has been non-existent for months now. I took my last solo trip to California for a blogging conference on the weekend of January 24th. Back then I had no idea what was to come. I heard on the local news while I was there that they had their first possible Covid19 case in a town near where I had traveled. He too had flown through LAX. There were a few people on my plane wearing masks on the flight back. Were they overreacting? Hindsight is 20/20 so I would say, no.
Most of us have been staying at home with our families for close to 2 months now. Only leaving the house to pick up essential items at the store. I miss the days of wandering around Marshall’s looking for cool stuff. Sure I could go online and find cool stuff but it’s not the same as wandering up and down the aisles until something catches your eye. I miss talking to my work friends every morning at our desks or welcoming my team members with a smile and hello when they arrive and saying goodbye each night. Most of all I miss seeing my dad and our talks over lunch. I see my husband every day but I miss our Friday morning breakfast out at the local cafe. I miss happy hour at the bar or local winery with my girlfriends. I miss hugging those girlfriends because that’s what we do. We hug. We have physical closeness but we can’t do that right now. These are the little things we took for granted.
So where do we go from here? We adapt. We survive. We find joy in the little things. We are resilient, even if it doesn’t feel like we are sometimes. This too shall pass and we will be stronger for it. Our relationships with our children and significant others will be stronger for it. Most importantly we as women will be stronger for it. Why? Because we have this small blip in our lifetime where Covid19 came and eventually will leave. Until then, stay the course because if we all work together it will be over someday. In the meantime, embrace this time you have with your children even if every day isn’t perfect, and somedays you feel overwhelmed. Hug your kids. When was the last time you were working full time outside of the home and you had the chance to hug your kids in the middle of the day? I don’t think any of us were running to daycare to give our kids a hug but guess what? Now you can! Revel in the time you are spending with your new office “partners” at home if you are working remotely. Personally, I think I drive my husband crazy with my watercooler talk all day. But you know what? I think he’s going to miss it!
I realize it’s not all about being stir crazy. I know many are under a lot of stress whether it’s financial due to job loss or decrease in income, worry about someone close to you getting sick, or concern about how long this will go on. I just want to remind you that you are in control. You are stronger than you know. You will get through this. You need to take time out for you even if you have to put it in your calendar. Practice self love daily. When you take care of YOU it is so much easier to take care of everyone else. Breathe. Think of all you have accomplished so far. Just remember, we are all in this together and together we can achieve anything.
May we travel through life together.
Pam
