Adventures in Wonderland

Looking Glass House: Reflections

Isolation Incidents

To provide a bit of context... I live in New York City (one of the first places in the U.S to dramatically feel the impact of the pandemic) but at the time I was working in New Jersey during the week. To make travel easier I had rented an apartment in New Jersey to stay overnight during the work week and would go back home on the weekends to be with my family. Both New York and New Jersey got simultaneously hit with Stay at Home quarantine orders midway into March last year. I decided that it was best to stay in my New Jersey Apartment. I quarantined there for a couple of months and worked remotely avoiding going outdoors except to go to the supermarket. Even then I would stock up on as many groceries as I could to minimize the trips. It felt lonely and scary. I did get the chance to facetime my family during the evenings but the rest of day I was isolated and it got to be pretty depressing. Eventually the restrictions relaxed and I was able to go home to be with the family that I missed and continue working remotely from there.

If there are any takeaways I learned from the past year... it is to recognize the good things in my life even when things seem like they are really dark. I am very lucky to have a home and a job during a time when that is not something that is guaranteed. I am also blessed with a great family that I love very much. It is important that I treasure every second I get to spend with them.

The other big lesson I've learned is the value of patience. During the height of the Quarantine, one of the really good things that the Governor of New York (Andrew Cuomo) did was provide daily briefings to the people of his state. He told us everything New York was doing to combat the pandemic and gave us status updates on how things were going. He also recognized that this was a depressing and scary time for everyone and did his best to reassure us. One moment from his briefings that resonated with me was when he urged New Yorkers to be patient in sticking with the Covid restriction guidelines. He described the quarantine as a bad version of the Groundhog's day movie where you are reliving the same boring day over and over again. He knew that quarantine gets tedious after awhile but assured us that things would eventually get better if given the chance and he was right. It took a few weeks but the quarantine did end and while we we still have a long way to go before we beat the pandemic entirely, New York is slowly getting back on its feet.

That advice is something to keep in mind in any situation when you are feeling helpless. Sometimes all you can do is wait it out and recognize that the bad things happening to you are only temporary. Things will get better if given the time.
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