Living Through COVID: A Year of Reflection

---

2020.

What can I say? It's been one for the record books. This past year has been a year of change and reflection. I like most, work a 9-5 day job in a corporate office building; albeit, not in the city. I had a gym that I was able to use on my lunch breaks, we had a rooftop café and we were steps from restaurants and coffee shops. All of this changed rapidly when the coronavirus hit early in the year. Suddenly I found myself working from home, without access to a gym and my social circle is pretty much non-existent. Fast forward to the end of the year and there is no normalcy in sight for the foreseeable future.

I will be honest, I do enjoy working from home but what I have found is I have become very ISOLATED. When I say isolated; I mean I WFH, workout at home and only leave the house when I am in need of groceries. I have always been a homebody but boy, being forced to stay home was HARD!

While this year has been one of the most challenging I have faced in my 31 years it has also been incredibly insightful. The word resiliency takes on a whole new meaning in this crazy world. 2020 has brought out the best and worst in people but I think we are all starting to find our groove.

The lessons I have learned, I would not trade for anything and I hope you all take a moment to reflect on this past year and embrace the experience and wisdom that came with the challenges. Here are a few of the lessons I (sometimes begrudgingly) learned:

The Importance of Routine

I'm sure I am not alone when I say that the hardest part of 2020 was establishing a routine. I lost all sense of routine for a majority of the year. I went from working in an office with access to a gym, to working from home with no access to a gym. I spent the first 6-8 months of the pandemic sleeping in and struggling with at home workouts. Let's be honest; my priority was not working out and it was 100% eating ALL the food *face palm*.

After struggling (and protesting) for the majority of the year, I realized that nothing is going to be changing anytime soon. With my commute cut short (I literally walk down the hall), I gained 1.5 hours a day and TBH, it felt like I had lost 1.5 hours. I wasn't using my time wisely. To be fair, it was extraordinary circumstances and it took some time to adjust to my new routine.

I set myself a goal with the intent to make the most out of my day. I bought a treadmill and a squat rack and started waking up an hour early to work out. My gym and office are now the same room and believe me when I say it's cozy. I still struggle some days but learning to manage and organize my day has helped tremendously.

I am Terrible at Managing Stress

I always thought I was good at managing stress but I realized that I'm actually quite terrible at it. I tend to bottle things up and I used to use the gym as my stress reliever. Obviously, with the loss of my normal routine, I had to find another way to deal with life.

So.... I started journaling.

Journaling I have done periodically throughout the years. I rediscovered my love for it and I have been journaling consistently since the spring. I am also trying to get into meditating but to be honest, I'm terrible at that too. I still try to incorporate some quiet into my day and I'm hoping to fall in love with meditating but I'm not quite there yet.

I Don't Have a Hobby

This one hit me HARD! Who doesn't have a hobby?! I found myself sitting at my computer all day for work, then transitioning to the couch to spend the evening binging Schitts Creek (ok, I finished Schitts Creek embarrassingly fast and have moved on to Letterkenny). I now fully understand where those extra 20 pounds came from...

My husband (we'll call his A) is a video game streamer; I cannot play video games to save my life (seriously; I'm THAT bad). So, I started spending more time reading (I do have ONE hobby). That, and with my new found love of journaling, I discovered that I actually have a lot to say and some of it may actually be useful to my readers.

I have learned a lot of tips and tricks through my travels and experiences and I thought that I could share those with my readers. This blog also gave me an outlet and something that I can build upon in 2021.

10,000 Steps a Day is HARD!

Seriously, is this even achievable when you WFM??! I can barely reach 7,000 and that is with a run, walking the dogs and a workout. For the first part of the year, I was barely reaching 2,500 steps. I'm still convinced 10,000 steps a day when working from home is absolutely not possible...

Looking Beyond 2020

It's looking more and more like 2021 is going to be largely the same as 2020. At least until a vaccine is widely available. I plan to make the most out of my year and build this blog and find some hobbies. I'll share more on that as the year progresses. I am secretly hoping that we'll be able to resume travelling later in the year. A & I had a Inca Trail permit for earlier this year and of course we had to cancel our trip. The Peruvian government has extended our permit so I am hoping to re-book that trip (which was my dream trip BTW) in early 2022.

I hope you all have a wonderful and healthy 2021. Safe travels!