At the start of this year, I had stated that my goal for the year was simply to try to do what I could in my own small way every day to make the world a little better. At the time, I implored everyone else to do the same. I had no idea then that so many of us would be banding together to fight a pandemic, and it is even more surprising that for nearly all of us the way we can make the world a better place involves staying home and watching TV (Tiger King anyone?).

I, like most of my fellow Americans, and a truly astonishing number of people around the world, am currently staying home as much as I can and following social distancing. In a very real way, it feels like we are all in this together, and I feel a great deal of camaraderie with my fellow man as we are all coming together by staying apart. I hope this shared experience continues to bring us together in the future.

I have noticed that a lot of people are sharing their experiences during this quarantine, and I thought I would throw my hat in the ring as well, not because my experience is particularly unique or special, but because it has been nice to see the commonalities between all of us. It is easy to feel alone and isolated as we are all hunkered down in our own houses. I hope someone whose experience is similar to mine will see this and feel that they are part of the greater community.

Social distancing started about a month ago for me, right around the time my kids were off for Spring Break. We had started to see indications that there was a problem, but it seemed like an abstract threat until it wasn’t. We canceled plans to visit my sister in New Orleans, stockpiled some food, and waited to hear what was next.

My Most Recent Trip to the Grocery Store

At the time, as store shelves emptied and people started to panic I realized how fragile our modern lives really are. Our store shelves are a couple of missed deliveries away from being empty, which means that most of us are at best a few weeks away from being hungry. Most Americans are only a few hundred dollars away from financial ruin, and I doubt the situation is much better in the rest of the world. If our systems stop working we will all be in a lot of trouble in a very short period of time. It absolutely made me think about my life choices, and if I was really prepared. Here in Florida, we have emergency situations pretty regularly due to hurricanes. Almost all Floridians have hurricane preparedness kit that we restock every hurricane season just in case. But those kits are made for short term inconveniences and a week or so of empty store shelves. We know that the delay in supplies will be short term, and our lives will eventually get back to normal. This situation is different. It may be years before we get back to “normal” and there is a very real chance that things will never again be like they once were.

The situation was really brought home to me the first time we went grocery shopping after schools had been canceled and businesses had been shuttered. I expected things to be different but hitting the grocery store felt a bit like walking into a dystopian future movie. The store was more empty than I had ever seen it, people were being very careful to keep their distance, and all of the employees were armed with cleaning supplies. The biggest difference though was the feeling that going grocery shopping was taking a risk.

We made masks after that and have been giving them away to health care workers and people in high-risk groups. We also made some for ourselves which have since come in handy.

I have been pretty lucky throughout this situation. I remain employed, and I have been able to work from home. I also live in a medium-sized city that has not been hit hard by the virus, probably because most of the people that live here seem to be taking social distancing seriously. I am also lucky to live in an amazingly friendly neighborhood that has pulled together in a really amazing way to support each other throughout this pandemic. One of our neighbors has started to engage everyone with dinner ideas every night. We have also had a social distancing neighborhood block party (people ate outside in their own yards within sight of each other but significantly more than 6 feet away from each other), and there are currently plans to hold a graduation parade for the neighborhood seniors whose graduations have been canceled (a graduate per car with neighbors showing their support by waving and yelling from their front doors).

Infection is not expected to peak in my town until June, so, despite the current talk of reopening the country I expect the kids and I to be home for at least another month, probably two, and it is very possible it will be longer unless testing and contact tracing become far more widespread. We are trying to make the best of it. We are ALL trying to make the best of it.

Please consider sharing your own experience in the comments, and connect with a fellow human being in a way that is still safe.

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