Blog Post 10
It has now been a week and two days since I "moved" back home and our family of five has returned. My parents and my oldest sister are teleworking and my middle sister is finishing up pharmacy school virtually. It has definitely been a hot minute since all five of us have lived together for a prolonged amount of time, excluding holidays. When I was a freshman in high school, both of my sisters were in college and only came home for long weekends and holidays so I was essentially an only child for about four years. The dynamic is frazzled and hectic with phone calls going on, our home phone ringing constantly, at least one person banging pots around in the kitchen, and music blasting from at least one bedroom. It has certainly been a project in itself just to find my center of focus as well as a spot where I am not easily distracted by the things going on around me. Even with all the chaos that has ensued in the house, one of the biggest silver linings in all of this is family time. Although we all have our own things going on, one thing that hasn't changed is having dinner together every night which is always a good time for laughs, games, and catching up with one another.
In my last post I wrote a part about how even such a devastating pandemic has its positives. Last week I mainly wrote about how nature is slowly recovering from the strain humans have been putting on it for so many years. However, now that a week has passed I've had a lot more time to observe and think about what COVID-19 has brought other than the obvious negatives. During one of our class discussions before all of this happened, we talked about the meaning of the American Dream. I feel like as our country has advanced and society has developed, the American Dream has begun to weigh more-and-more heavily on our values and our priorities, gearing them more toward money, success, and a materialistic world. Obviously it matters that we work hard, but personally I think there are more humanistic priorities placed before work. From my time abroad, it became very apparent that in Greece, their number one value is placed on family and even though their economic standing is very low they remain happy as long as they are healthy and have their loved ones with them. Being stuck at home with our loved ones may not have been a choice at first, but I think it has definitely shed light on what matters on a deeper level.
Simply put, this pandemic and everything that is going on because of it feels crazy. Nothing like this has ever happened before, to this extent, in my lifetime nor in my parents lifetime and the longer this goes on the crazier it seems even though I'm pretty sure it's meant to become a new "normal". Still, with all this crazy, it gets a bit easier each day. Once again, I hope everyone is doing well... staying sane and healthy during these times.
In my last post I wrote a part about how even such a devastating pandemic has its positives. Last week I mainly wrote about how nature is slowly recovering from the strain humans have been putting on it for so many years. However, now that a week has passed I've had a lot more time to observe and think about what COVID-19 has brought other than the obvious negatives. During one of our class discussions before all of this happened, we talked about the meaning of the American Dream. I feel like as our country has advanced and society has developed, the American Dream has begun to weigh more-and-more heavily on our values and our priorities, gearing them more toward money, success, and a materialistic world. Obviously it matters that we work hard, but personally I think there are more humanistic priorities placed before work. From my time abroad, it became very apparent that in Greece, their number one value is placed on family and even though their economic standing is very low they remain happy as long as they are healthy and have their loved ones with them. Being stuck at home with our loved ones may not have been a choice at first, but I think it has definitely shed light on what matters on a deeper level.
Simply put, this pandemic and everything that is going on because of it feels crazy. Nothing like this has ever happened before, to this extent, in my lifetime nor in my parents lifetime and the longer this goes on the crazier it seems even though I'm pretty sure it's meant to become a new "normal". Still, with all this crazy, it gets a bit easier each day. Once again, I hope everyone is doing well... staying sane and healthy during these times.
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