What I’ve Learned About Life From Being In Coronavirus Lockdown

It’s been almost a week since we left the office and were told to work from home. The news I was hoping for had finally come. I didn’t want to spend another minute commuting to work and being in contact with so many people. Now, I find myself as one of the many people in coronavirus lockdown.

It still feels surreal and with every day that passes by the severity of the coronavirus seems to increase. Many countries are on lockdown, people are being told to stay at home or face fines (or jail time) and all you see on the news is coronavirus related stories.

It feels like when Princesses Diana died or when the twin towers were attacked. The subject of coronavirus is all we have heard for weeks. Things are changing so quickly and even as I write this the British prime minister has just released a video telling the world he now has the virus.

It’s got to the point now where I’m beginning to think that the world may change forever after all of the dust settles, and, the dust might not settle for another twelves months. We’re living in a weird limbo where none of us knows what’s going to happen next. The streets haven’t been so empty since WW2.

I’ve been confined to my room now for five days, tapping away on my keyboard without any real breaks. There is no escape and work and normal life are beginning to blur into one. Going outside seems odd at this point of the coronavirus lockdown. I went to the store earlier and had to stand in a queue that reached all the way down the road. Many were wearing masks, myself included.

Trying to breathe under the shirt I’d tied around my mouth I shuffled up the road with my hood over my head. It was a strange experience to say the least. People rushing around trying to grab everything they needed before the shelves became empty. I made my way back quickly to the safety of my apartment once I was done, not knowing when I might be able to go back outside again.

It feels as if we are going into new territory and I can’t help but think this must be what those hiding in their houses would have felt during the air raids in the ’40s. So much uncertainty, so much fear that they ‘might be next’. I cannot even go and visit my parents to make sure that they are okay. Luckily, technology allows us to communicate and see their faces.

I don’t remember a time where I called so many people so often. Only one week ago I was living my normal life before all of this confinement. Now, I look outside the window as if I’m starring at a totally different world. A world where the streets are empty but the seagulls still roam. Hardly any cars speed down this road anymore. The few people that do dare go outside are clutching shopping bags. Almost everyone is now locked away, hoping to stay safe from the invisible threat of coronavirus.

I for one am not feeling very worried at this stage. I still enforce my philosophy on myself; “don’t worry until there’s something to worry about”. Maybe I should be worried but for now, I feel as if my family and I are doing everything we can to stay safe. If we worry too much about coronavirus and what it is doing to some parts of the world we will go insane and start panicking.

Through all of this uncertainty and chaos I feel like I have found clarity on a few things. Confined to my apartment I have had essential time to reflect on life that I would never have normally had and I’d like to share those things with you here as we approach a full week of advised lockdown in the UK.

1. Everyday Things Seem So Unimportant

A week ago I was worried about getting to work on time, paying my rent and how much money I had in my bank account. This week those things all seem so unimportant compared to what I’m spending my time thinking about today. Health and the health of my family seems like the only thing that matters right now.

I’ve always known those things were always the most important things to me but it’s now obvious that the daily grind buries them in the back of my mind. There’s so much to have to think about in ‘normal life’ that we rarely just stay and one place and think about how grateful we are for what we have.

2. We Are So Fragile, Coronavirus Lockdown Or Not

We are so fragile as societies. Many of us thought that WW3 would be the thing that brought us to our knees but instead, it’s an invisible threat that can sweep through nations so easily and do serious damage to people. We walk through our lives consumed by all the distractions that we think make our lives worth living.

The health services and comforts that we have constructed make us feel somewhat invisible in this way of life we have lived for so long. It feels like we’ve all bee caught off guard and slapped in the face by reality.

The reality is, not only are our societies fragile, we ourselves as human beings are also so fragile. None of us has seen anything like this before and none of us could have imagined the damage a virus could do so quickly in our modern societies.

I look at places like London and New York that feel like places that have existed forever. However, it seems that these iconic cities with their advanced health systems stand no chance against an explosion of the virus. The truth is, those places haven’t been around for very long when you take into account the age of the planet. And furthermore, who knows how many places like these have been wiped out over the age of the planet’s existence?

We’re fragile on our own but only become strong when we work together.

3. There’s No Difference Between You And I

Pre-virus we’ve always had our differences. It’s part of being a human. However, all of that stuff seems to have gone away now that we’ve all been faced with the same enemy that isn’t human. It’s as if aliens have landed and we’ve all put aside our anger towards each other so we can concentrate on what is actually important.

As I sit and type this, 500,000 volunteers have put their hands up to help the cause by delivering essentials to those who need it. Who knows if those people would have felt as if they could help society if it were not for this virus.

I believe we always knew there was no difference between race or culture we were just too far gone in all the mudslinging to change. Now that we share this common threat, I’m interested to see if we all become more compassionate towards each other once it’s over.

4. This Situation Reflects What We Try And Do In Everyday Life

Sitting in my room I can’t help but feel that this situation is echoing what we try and do in our everyday lives. Locked away we are forced to make the best out of a situation we didn’t ask for.

Don’t we do that in our everyday lives anyway? You and I did not ask to be born. We were thrust into a long and hard journey that was always destined to be a rough ride. Most of us are just trying to make the best out of it because that’s all we can do.

Pretty much everyone has to accept their situation and keep going whilst they work with what they have.

5. We Need Eachother, Not Just During Coronavirus Lockdown

Something else we always knew deep down was the fact that we need each other. We need each other and we need the world’s resources that surround us. None of us is more important than the next person. Global pandemics like this show us that our egos don’t mean jack. None of us is immune to the danger that a virus like this can cause.

When something like this happens we need each other. We need those cleaners and those shop works and those health care workers. Many of us don’t give them the credit they deserve in our hectic day to day lives. We assume that if they are doing a low wage boring job then they must be less important than us.

This pandemic has shown all of us that those people are more important than CEOs of large companies or celebrities. The people that do the so-called ‘grunt work’ are the ones who will save our lives when push comes to shove.

We need each other, not just through this situation but always.