Okay. So. This week specifically I've been missing my life a lot more than usual. I woke up especially early today feeling a little stir-crazy. After googling "When will this be over?" and "Covid19 cases in VA" can you imagine how happy I was to discover that we in fact have a whopping total of 5000+ cases!!! Pretty sure I went a little insane for a few minutes after that. Very devastated, but like, what can you do? I mean, other than staying in your house.
Anyways I've been using this time wisely and decided to spend some of it binge-watching Disney classics instead of doing homework, one of them being The Hunchback of Notre Dame. And it made me think. While Quasimodo, the protagonist, can be a metaphor for several other things, today he will be one for our current situation, the pandemic. What I'm saying will make sense in a minute, just bare with me. If you've never seen it, watch it. A masterpiece, really. It's about a child born with deformities, such as a hunched back and a distorted face. He is abandoned by his mother and taken in by the archdeacon of Notre Dame who views him as a monster just like everyone else he encounters. Although everyone views him as an abomination and a hopeless cause there is so much you can learn from his character. He is patient, he finds joy in everything around him, he is resilient and full of hope. We are in a Quasimodo. And by that I mean there are several virtues that being quarantined has encouraged me to exercise. While I could let my sanity slip away and be distraught by this seemingly hopeless situation seeing Quasimodos character inspired me to instead take time to learn from this.
There is no exact date of when we'll be freed from the shackles of this dreaded quarantine. I'd say ignorance is bliss but frankly that having an exact date to look forward to would help, maybe. But because this may go longer than the expected release date it's forced me to practice patience and being able to have hope in a hopeless situation. It's so easy to get caught up in what's on the news and the numbers but I have to remind myself while time is passing whatever begins must also come to an end. Oh, and this applies for a trick that I have been trying to land on my skateboard the last few weeks. I cannot land an ollie to save my life so if anyone has any tips or tricks please send them my way I'll love you forever.
Anyways, during this all, I've remembered to appreciate the little things. I'm extremely blessed. The situation I'm in definitely isn't ideal .but I can't say I'm having a horrible time. It's nice to slow down, be thankful for what is available to me. I just recently found out you can watch movies with friends over zoom and when I tell you I almost cried...
Last but not least, executing resilience has been the most important part of this experience. Not allowing this major inconvenience stop me in my tracks but instead using it to my benefit. Just because the world is on pause doesn't mean we have to be. There is a scene in The Hunchback of Notre Dame where a little girl sees Quasimodo and stares at him in an inquisitive manner and rather than running away she embraces him. We should embrace the situation at hand because at this point, what more is there to do?