It’s all in the perspective!

What’s your COVID-19 story going to be? It’s all in the perspective!

I am PhD student, a teacher and a mother of two young children. This combination is a handful on any given day, but I had somehow figured my own ways to prioritize my life and manage it accordingly. Before COVID-19 hit our worlds and disrupted our realities, I had an entire village to help me manage my life and raise my kids. My husband and I had balanced our everyday tasks, I had a nanny, support from my daughter’s school and my son’s daycare, their grandparents pithed in but all of a sudden my village was gone and this ‘new normal’ was enforced upon us.

Now I don’t get to spend hours on reading and writing for my school, I don’t get to finish my work the way I “normally” could, I cook multiple times a day and I am constantly tidying up and making sure my kids are safe during these unprecedented times. It was overwhelming at first, frustrating even, I certainly went through some cycles of anxiety but then I realized I actually have the time and opportunity to watch my kids grow closely, to listen to the birds sing every morning, to watch the winter turn to spring, to pay attention to the gorgeous blue of the sky…the simple but impactful things of life that otherwise just swing by us and become a distant memory.

What is this forced slowdown is a blessing in disguise? Years from now I imagine myself sharing stories of this time with others. But it’s up to me what kind of story I want to share when all this is history. Is it going to be the one filled with frustration and negative feelings or is it going to be the one filled with gratitude and perspective of living in the moment?

I choose positivity, gratitude and kindness for myself. What is your COVID-19 story going to be like?