I know what you’re thinking. You read the title of this post and you immediately thought, “Well, I guess this is outdated!” But nope! It’s St. Patty’s Day, 2020. Ten years worth of chaos unfolded in the last week due to COVID-19 making it’s grand appearance into the United States. The memes are already circulating about what a terrible year this has turned out to be. Major film studios are pulling releases, all of sports putting their seasons on indefinite suspension, all sorts of concerts and events getting cancelled, and even “The Happiest Place on Earth” (A.K.A. Disney parks all over the world) have been closed until further notice. Schools, churches, and entire business have closed their doors and are now attempting to operate at a remote level. Some of us have no idea when we’ll get a paycheck again. The worst part is that all of this, while temporary, is indefinite with no end in sight.
When I left for spring break ten days ago, I embarked on a 1,000 mile road trip. My set of anxieties was completely different than what they are today. I was worried about getting hired into a full time teaching position by the fall. I was coordinating meet-ups with half a dozen people over four cities. I was planning out how to give a face-lift to my room at the family house. Seven days later, when I returned around midnight this past Saturday, I just wanted to go a full night’s rest without thinking of the stupid virus that had disrupted our lives to the point of bringing everything to a stand still.
In hindsight, it was a selfish thought.
All of that being said, hear me out! Here’s a list of five things that are great about what’s happening right now.
1. I know I’m not the only one that selfishly feels unnecessarily victimized by the call for isolation, the “order” of self-quarantine and social distancing, especially since the number of people dying seems low for such extreme measures. But then I had to ask myself: how many people have to die to take these measures? In the United States, the number of cases (not even deaths) is an extremely low percent of the population, especially compared to epidemics of our history. Yet, notoriously greedy–oops! I mean profitable— institutions and companies have taken major, major losses to insure the health of America and the stunted spread of the disease. Sure, a few of them were forced or heavily pressured by the authorities, but many were actually the front runners of the movement. The economy is going to crash for sure, but it’s a hit that we’ve decided to take so save what will ultimately be many more lives than we will ever know.
2. You know all those memes about practically being dead and the manager still wants you to come into work? It’s like the virus heard the cry of millions of Americans in need of a sick, mental health, or personal day and was like “hold my beer!”. We’re twenty years into the twenty-first century, that’s 20% of it, by the way, and too many employers are just now adapting the mentality of “I guess you could work from home for a while.” The internet has been around for three decades, and high speed has been widely reliable and accessible for at least ten years. It’s like people suddenly became problem solvers! A world full of excuses has now become a world full of solutions. I know some people aren’t working in isolation, but that’s because…
3. We now realize that some non-digital jobs are irreplaceable and underappreciated. Being a teacher myself, I am thoroughly enjoying the memes about people homeschooling their kids for the first time. I might do a post in the future about the necessity of teachers, but right now I want to recognize other professions. Truck drivers. Delivery men (thanks, Amazon, for still delivering all those packages that I binge-bought while bored shopping online the other day despite bored women everywhere doing the same, and that’s not even counting people ordering things they actually need). Stockers and cashiers at Walmart and other big grocery chains. Anyone that works in customer service at those same places dealing with panic shopping idiots. The people working in drive through windows and food delivery who will be working for a new load of people since half the population has been sent home from work. (Not only that, but judging by what’s left on the shelves at the grocery stores they also have no idea how to cook healthy meals for themselves or their kids.) This pandemic has caused us to appreciate and recognize these people when before we would just take them for granted.
4. The indebted are showing mercy and compassion. A ton of us have lost our jobs due to the shut-downs. I was working close to full-time (4-5 days a week) but since I was paid by the day and not a salary-contracted employee, I do not qualify for unemployment. The regular teachers will still be getting paid as they teach online, but the need for substitute teachers has been suspended. A lot of other people are in my same boat. Anyone that was working by the hour at a company that sent everyone home is not getting paid. Anyone that worked for movie theaters, event centers, and waiting on tables at restaurants that closed their dining halls are also out of work. Because of this, I’ve now heard of multiple places that are giving two months grace on rent, loans, and payments. I can’t say it’s happened for me yet, but it’s just showing how everyone recognizes that this is not a time to be selfish and we all make sacrifices to get through the crisis.
5. Last but not least, the moment this whole thing passes, we will not go about our days mundanely complaining about our daily lives. Instead, we will all be excited and grateful for every chance we have to go outside, go to school, church, or work outside of our homes. We will have a new appreciation for the work everyone does. We will have the knowledge that we survived the crisis by pulling together and making individual sacrifices, and we will feel 100 times more grateful for the opportunities we do have. Every movie we’ll see, every concert we’ll attend, every game we’ll cheer at, and every theme park we’ll visit will be appreciated and enjoyed in a way that we never would have imagined before 2020. It might not last forever, as gratitude never does, but it will last for the rest of 2020.
To sum up, even though people will always be polarized on such things as politics, sports, and religion. The events of 2020 have forced us to put all of that aside and realize that the most important thing is how we treat each other.
2020 is already a great year.
Eat. Pray. Keep On. 