It’s 7:45 am on a Tuesday morning, or is it Wednesday? Every day feels like yesterday at this point. I wake up, go to online school, eat, do homework, exercise, eat again, and go to bed, just to repeat it all the next day.
The entire world is stuck in quarantine due to a global pandemic 2020. You're telling me we can go to the moon and live in space, yet we can’t fight a virus? Anyways, the moon conspiracy is a topic for another day.
Life has been like a movie lately, and I’ve been trying to figure out which one. Contagion? World War Z? Probably both, but I feel like I’ve been transported into GroundhogDay.
It’s hard to separate the days from each other when they all look the same. I truly feel like I’m stuck in a cycle of the same day. It doesn’t help that I have no concept of time anymore either. I recently realized it’s the middle of May, and we’ve been quarantined for over 2 months now. Someone failed to fill me in on that.
There have been new things added to my family’s daily routine. We seem to think we’re European and don’t eat dinner until 8:00 pm at the earliest. Even my younger brother has been waiting to eat with us. I am starting to get a little tired of my mom’s cooking, though. (Sorry Mom, it’s not personal.) Don’t get me wrong, she’s a great cook, but I just want pizza, not some New York Times recipe that she had to buy an Instantpot for.
As she cleans up from our New York Times-sponsored dinner, my mom has been making the family listen to D-Nice’s Instagram Live. Because it’s a part of her routine, it’s a part of mine now too.
I’ve found myself looking for anything that will help me keep track of the days and make it seem like I’m not living in Groundhog Day. One of the main things I look forward to are car rides. It’s as simple as that.
The other day was my little cousin's birthday, so my mom, my brother, and I drove to Pennsylvania to surprise him at his birthday drive-by. My brother and I looked forward to this drive for over a week; we even made a Spotify playlist for it. By “we” I mean he, with me adding a few One Direction songs of course. By the time we got to the drive by, I had almost lost my voice from singing so loud.
Drive-bys have become the new party of 2020. We thought we were getting Gatsby-themed celebrations, but for now, Cars will have to do. I think they’re a great way to celebrate during this quarantine. You follow the social distancing orders while still getting to see your friends and family to celebrate your birthday or graduation.
Everyone decorates their cars and honks their horns for the entire neighborhood to see. In my family, we have a tradition of putting up this old birthday sign whenever it’s one of our birthdays. We’ve probably had this sign for around 8 years now, and it’s getting a lot of use during these drive-bys.
The simple car ride has now turned into a modern-day party, and it’s all because of a global pandemic. It’s crazy that it took a virus to open my eyes and appreciate modern technology. I’ve actually realized this has become a pattern. The basic things I look for in a day to keep myself from living in Groundhog Day are the things I didn’t think twice about pre-quarantine.
From car rides, to dance class(now through Zoom), and even school, I’ve learned to appreciate the little things in life.
To stop myself from losing track of time again, I’ve tried to pick out one thing from each day that makes it different from the last. Yesterday, I was sitting outside by the fire pit on my porch trying to convince my family that I could see the NorthStar (I swear it was there).
Today, it was doing a Peloton workout to all Lizzo songs.
Life may seem like Groundhog Day right now, but it doesn’t have to be. Appreciate the little things in your day that make it different from the others.