By Lexi, 18, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
During this pandemic, I have been spending a lot of time with my family, going on long walks, watching new shows, and just thinking. Recently I’ve been into watching All American, Little Fires Everywhere, and Big Little Lies, and it is weird seeing how life in these shows is so normal compared with what I am living in now! Everything happened so fast - one day I was still going to school, and the next I was being told to not leave my house, and if I had to, then to wear a mask and gloves and stay six feet from everyone.
All of this thinking time has made me scared about the future state of the world and my life. It seems so quick and crazy that I am already a quarter of the way through college, and soon will have to get a job in the real world. Hopefully by then everything will be completely back to normal. This time has also taught me not to take such little things, like going to grab coffee, for granted. I think as a generation we move so quickly from thing to thing that we forget how lucky and able we are to do what we please. Because we live such fast-paced lives, it is a big change to be living such a slow life right now. In a way it is hard to just slow down and appreciate having so many days of really doing nothing, and it is equally as difficult to wake up every morning and know that my day will be mostly the same as yesterday.
I think my generation will mostly be affected by the lack of socialisation during this time of quarantine. As such an outspoken generation, quarantine eliminates a lot of these social gatherings and events that so many of us thrive in. Personally, my friends are such an important part of my life, and FaceTime just is not the same as in-person interaction.
On the bright side, it is a nice time to discover a new passion or hobby, or spend more time doing things you truly love to do, not just your usual work/school life routine. While I have not found myself a project to work on yet, I am hoping that this time will inspire me to make something creative because it’s not something I do often in my usual everyday life. Here’s to hoping that this will end as rapidly as it started.