What This Year Has Taught Us So Far
A few important lessons we picked up from January to July
Discouraging news keeps coming.
Wherever you are in the world while reading this, it seems like you and I are being challenged to come up with new ways of living, ordered to look at our short time on earth.
We know very well that there is no escaping death. This year, most of us faced it head-on.
Because of that, the last 6 months have changed us drastically.
This year has taught us to adapt.
Small businesses are popping up on our Facebook and Instagram feeds. Big businesses have filed for bankruptcy. People are scrambling for jobs and other sources of income including phishing scams. Colorful, reusable face masks and other protective equipment such as face shields are all the rage.
Now our ‘movements are more calculated, to the point of fearful. Our sense of freedom has diminished’, says Dino, a nurse and remote worker from Manila.
To keep our small family business afloat, I embraced the role of being a part-time delivery girl.
Our lifestyles have changed in ways that we have never pictured before.
This year made us lonely.
While under quarantine, people in Metro Manila are required to wear a mask. When we go out, we don’t see anyone smiling, teasing, or playing around just like before. The malls are quiet. Restaurant conversations are hushed.
Happy hour, parties, and socializing now happen via Zoom.
For Meg, a Filipina living and working in Singapore, virtual connections keep her relationships intact. It’s a test of ‘inner strength’ to be away from her family and husband, but being grateful for the smallest of blessings helps her manage one day at a time.
Long-distance relationships suddenly became the norm for couples because of quarantine restrictions.
What should have been the most awaited trip for me and my boyfriend turned out to be a month of canceled flights and being stuck at home.
We’d be lucky if he can fly to the Philippines by November. There’s nothing to do but wait.
This year made us appreciative.
We are all so grateful for our front line health professionals, delivery men and women, people working in groceries, pharmacies, banks and convenience stores.
We never thought we’d see them in this light. They are the superheroes of this time, risking their lives for our sake.
Living with my parents has given me a better glimpse of who they are day in and day out.
Our animals at home became, even more, the source of delight and laughter. They’re making staying at home bearable.
This year has made us conscious.
Didn’t we all become more conscious of the food that we eat, the products we spend our money on, the items we keep in our closets, and the people we talk to on a daily basis?
More consumers are going for local products that are easily accessible because they prefer staying at home. Growing plants and vegetables became a trend.
Ellen, a doctor who works for a non-government organization in Manila, has become more decisive and intentional with how she uses her time. As a mother of a one-year-old girl and a four-year-old boy, she has gradually learned to balance her time between work and mom duties.
Her attention — while at home — is now spread over Zoom meetings, breastfeeding, looking over her son’s online class and making sure everyone at home is alright.
I don’t know how she does it!
It’s when the lockdown began in March when I finally learned to set aside 5:30 to 7:30 AM for yoga. It has deepened my understanding of what goes on around me, and what comes and goes inside my head.
Yoga has strengthened my ability to notice and observe my thoughts. But despite practicing a bit more consistently, the fluctuations in my mind never went away.
This year has made us aware.
If you consider yourself apolitical prior to the pandemic, this must be the time that you read the news the most. Because we had more time, we read and watched the news more.
In the Philippines, the anti-terrorism law (recently signed) sparked protests from journalists, students, professors, activists, and ordinary citizens. Why? Because these are the same people who can get detained for speaking up against the government without an arrest warrant.
It has taught us that nothing, really, is permanent. Even the most stable institutions — just like the Philippines’ biggest and most successful network — have gone down.
Michael, an accountant working for a global bank in Manila’s business district, now works from home. Though his job is the same, his perspective of it has changed. He now appreciates mobility more and does not pressure himself to work too hard during the day. He has also given himself time to be ‘unproductive’ and do nothing.
Finally, this year has made us yearning for more.
Filipinos were battered with disappointments from the wrong use of funds by the local government units. A senator and a high-ranking police officer were caught breaching the quarantine rules. The people in authority that are supposed to be trusted broke our trust.
We yearned, more than ever, for better leadership and clearer plans for our respective, struggling countries.
On a personal level, we yearned for the freedom to go anywhere we like, to be with our friends and family without the need for a travel pass, to take flights without worrying about catching a deadly virus, and sometimes, for the space to be away from home just for a little while.
We wished for normalcy.
There are 5 months to adapt a little bit more, to examine our loneliness, to appreciate being alive, to be more conscious and aware of ourselves and others’ circumstances. To ask and demand more.
To be more. To give. To push a little bit further. To rest. To be more intentional with our choices.
I can’t share an all-encompassing lesson (sorry!) but a question. What will you be in the next 5 months?
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