What I Discovered About Myself During the Enhanced Community Quarantine

The pandemic interrupted my new normal and even threw in some panic, more fear, and sadness. On the brighter side, I discovered some things about myself during this ECQ.

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I am writing this article from our apartment’s guest room here in the US, where I can see a tree start to bloom. The tree always caught my attention since its leaves are red.

Nowadays, trees start to bloom, and the sun comes out brighter everyday. But as much as it would be nice to go out and enjoy the pleasant spring weather, the state where I live is on a strict social distancing guideline or what we call in the Philippines as enhanced community quarantine. Thus, enjoying the weather means just sitting on our porch and observing what I can see - a few cars and some people walking their dogs out.

By the time this article is published, I'm on my fifth week of enhanced community quarantine, and I am hoping the Philippines has #flattenthecurve and Filipinos are slowly going back to their normal lives. Something that I have prayed for all nations since the coronavirus became a global pandemic.

It's funny that I wanted to go back to a normal routine when in fact, being at home all the time is my new normal ever since I left my job in the Philippines and joined my husband here in the US last October.

I felt that the pandemic interrupted my new normal and even threw in some panic, more fear, and sadness. On the brighter side, I discovered some things about myself during this enhanced community quarantine:

I had foresight and could plan ahead.

The coronavirus didn't affect the lives of people living here in the US until mid-March, or should I say, when high-profile figures such as Tom Hanks went public with contracting the virus. Everything was normal here, but my husband and I noticed that there is a shortage of hand sanitizers, rubbing alcohol, and masks in groceries or pharmacies already.

With this shortage, along with regular news updates and how COVID-19 impacted other countries, we felt the virus could badly affect the US as well. Thus, there was a night in early March when we spent hours making a grocery list of essential things we needed in case of a lockdown. We even created a meal plan for an entire month. The next day, we found ourselves in two groceries and pharmacy, buying all food, disinfectants, and medicines we needed for two months.

Lo and behold, when the news broke out that the coronavirus is spreading faster than expected, we were surprised to see grocery aisles empty and even a shortage of toilet papers.

As much as I was fearful of how long this will last, I was proud that we planned and avoided the shortage of supplies or long lines.

I was ungrateful and realized how everyone is important.

I try to be nice to people I don't know. It might be the nurse who will give me a shot, the grocery cashier, or the barista at my go-to coffee shop. But, this pandemic made me realize how ungrateful I was to these people and how important they are. The nurse who made me wait so long is surely having a hard time helping doctors cure this sick. The cashier still goes to work since grocery are essential. The barista still serves coffee to make sure their business survive this time.

It took a pandemic for me to realize how these people are important to me. While I stay at home until this is over, they wake up everyday and risk their lives. Maybe when social distancing is done, I'll make sure to thank them and even go beyond my shy self for a friendly small talk.

I had hope and could endure more.

The overwhelming coronavirus cases and deaths all over the world made me think that we won't be going back to our normal lives as soon as we want.

The news, which doesn't give any hope, and my family being miles away during this pandemic made me anxious or want to panic everyday. Then I realized that reading the news and checking on my loved ones have been keeping me up at night and giving me nightmares.

Thus, I changed my activities and made it more hopeful:

• Watch top news stories for 30 minutes

• Dwell more on prayer and worship videos from our church

• Read the Bible

• Check on data and recovery rates

• Read stories of patients recovering from coronavirus

When I changed my daily activities, hope sprung in me. Hope that God heard our prayers, and this pandemic will end soon. The hope to face tomorrow, whatever it might bring. The hope that we get to go out again. Lastly, the hope that I will be home in the Philippines again to see my family.

This hope allowed me to endure more and be patient with the circumstances. I can wake up tomorrow with a brighter perspective in life and believe everything will be better.

How about you, what have you learned during a month-long enhanced community quarantine?

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This article was published in The Muse blog last April 20.