My house is different today. Very different. I work from home and even homeschooled for a year, but today is the beginning of something brand new.
John is downstairs on a call with his coworker doing what he does for his job. Poppy is across the hall in a sociology lecture. And I’m in my office supposedly outlining a novel.
Instead, I’m blogging as I wrap my head around this.
We’ve never gone to work at the exact same time in the same space, and it’s just plain weird.
Last week was our spring break so everyone was home and hanging around. It was like summer or a school vacation. We all . . . thrived. I hate to say that when so many people are struggling, but we’re all homebodies who nested.
Today we’re all back at our “normal” routine, which isn’t normal at all. Each of us is seeking out a new life/work/school/family balance.
I’m the IT person now, it seems. I just helped Poppy figure out how to print a doc at home that her tech wasn’t connected to. A few minutes later I was helping John figure out how to use Office 365 rather than the downloaded version of all the programs he’s used to.
These are little changes driven by something global. All around the world, people are affected by this, and I can’t help wonder how the COVID-19 pandemic will change the world in the coming months and years. Will it change how people work? Will more jobs shift over to at-home jobs now that management has seen that it’s possible?
I’ve known my husband could work remotely for years because we essentially do the same job. He’s a medical copy editor. I’m a romance editor. Most of my clients don’t even live on the same continent as I do, but John’s employer is traditional AF. I’m sure this change tied upper management in knots as they worked out how this stay-home order would work.
This will be another transition week for us as we #stayhome and #workfromhome. We can’t be too hard on ourselves as we figure things out. Projects might be delayed, a nap might sound amazing, and snacks will be eaten. Lots and lots of snacks.
Yesterday Poppy asked me if, in the future, people younger than her would one day ask her what it was like to live through this. Yes! Certainly.
We’re rarely aware of history being made as we live it. I can think of only a few times in my life, and even then, I wasn’t fully cognizant of the impact being made. But right now, I know this pandemic will be written about in history books.
March is no longer a month, it has been reclassified as an era
— VeryBritishProblems (@SoVeryBritish) March 30, 2020
The world closed. How could that not be included in history textbooks? It will change us and our societies.
It’s weird. It’s weird that my neighbors’ cars are in the driveways during the day. It’s weird to hear the normally rush-hour-busy street near my house utterly quiet. It’s weird to make a huge arc to avoid a person when I’m walking Olive. It’s just weird.
Love the people around you from afar. Wash your hands. FaceTime or Skype the people you love. And be gentle with yourself and those who live with you.
