My lockdown story begins, way before I ever imagined that there could be such an occurrence.
Picture a boy trying to make sense of life and the rat race in which he found himself, held up in his university hostel trying to make sense of it all.
I’ve always been haunted by the idea that I was “underachieving” and not taking my life seriously enough. Anxiety, panic attacks, the whole mix.
However, I remember thinking to myself, two weeks into being back at home, stuck – “this is it”. That the reality of life, the most basic, simplified part of being human was staying alive. Everything else is peripheral.
I fussed a lot about the “extras” when truly, it really was just a blank slate to make what I wanted of it. The virus put a pause to everything and the vital things weren’t going to school, getting a job, getting married or anything else.
Being alive and being kind to others became the necessities and they always had been. They just got buried beneath the noise.
In the lockdown I could now pause, reflect and refocus. Life is beautiful when we focus on the important things.