Covid 19: Normalizing Life with Corona Virus and Social Distancing

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Words and Photographs by Elizabeth Winn 

Before this past week, I had never heard of the verb “social-distancing.” Nor had I heard of words like “self-isolate” or “self-quarantine.”  

You’re probably asking yourself, "Did this girl not hear about the Coronavirus before this past week?”

Well, duh! I don’t live under a rock. I’m 21-years-old, studying journalism in downtown Manhattan in New York City. I’d heard of the Coronavirus before this past week.  

I had read the headlines. I had watched the stock market rise and drop. I had seen the pictures. But, for the most part, the Coronavirus seemed like a distant problem for a distant part of the world, not my world. That is, until Tuesday, March 10. 

At 12:20 p.m., I received a message saying my college would be switching in-person teaching to remote teaching starting immediately until April 1.

 On Thursday, March 12, my editorial internship at a women's lifestyle magazine went from in-office to remote. 

On Friday, March 13, I received a message from my college that said the rest of the semester would be taught online and later that day, my two side jobs were canceled.  

Good, I remember thinking, sarcastically. Just great!

I know people say that creativity is at its height when people are sad or scared, and sometimes that’s true. But for me, after my normal crumbled before my eyes last week, that was not the case.

With no job, no school and a limited amount of money in my checking account, I began to panic, as one does when faced with a worldwide pandemic. 

But, an anxiety attack and grocery run later, I went home to my 2 roommates and our 700 square-foot 1 bedroom apartment which was now stocked for an apocalypse and sat on the floor. 

Now what? 

I downloaded TikTok.

Well, my roommate did, and we made TikTok dances. Then I watched Aladdin. Then, I laid out on my building’s roof and read a book.

I felt like a modern-day Rapunzel, waiting for my prince to come to rescue me from my 4-story walk-up, or something like that. 

But, no prince was coming as far as I could tell, and I was itching to do something. I had to do something productive.

I decided I had to spring clean. 

I would get rid of old notebooks, the paper scraps taking up space in the corners of my life. I would make the bookshelf I always told myself I didn’t have time to make. Then to begin crafting gifts for my friends. 

Before I could do any of that though, I had to unlock my apartment’s front door and go to Saifee’s Hardware Store. Saifee’s is probably one of my favorite stores in Manhattan, located in the East Village on the corner of First Ave. and Seventh St. An emporium of hanging plants, Swiffers, and tools, Saifee’s was like a little haven from the city’s ghostly streets. I bought 2 L-hooks, a pack of screws and some miscellaneous but necessary cleaning items that my apartment was missing and returned with a spring in my step. 

Tomorrow morning I would wake with the sun and begin cleaning, I told myself. 

But the next morning I didn’t wake with the sun. I woke up about 3 hours after the sun, at 9 a.m. 

Rolling out of bed, I pulled my messy blonde hair into a knot on top of my head, poured myself a cup of coffee, and rolled back into bed. 

It wasn’t until 10 a.m. that I actually got out of bed and tied my shirt up to begin the spring cleaning. By 1:30 p.m. I had hung a bookshelf and two pictures up made a new jewelry box out of an old book and had thrown out old papers that no longer had a purpose in my life anymore. 

The things about this pandemic, about this strange time in our lives, is that we’re told to stop going all the time. We’re actually told to stay put. We’re told to pause. We’re told to take a deep breath. 

A lot of people on social media have been saying you should use this time to improve yourself or to start that book or podcast or project that you’ve been putting off. And, perhaps you should. But, you don’t have to right away. You can just give yourself time to be. 

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