Feeling Closer, While Being Further Apart

Everything sucks a bit right now and I know you don’t need me to tell you that.

Going out for fresh air is starting to induce serious guilt pangs, we’re discovering the shocking amount of caffeine – and dishes – our significant others go through in a day, and it turns out the rabbit hole of streaming content does in fact have an end. And let’s not even talk about our front-line workers who are keeping the rest of safe and indoors, earning a pitiful minimum wage, working impossible hours, and risking their lives daily. Oh, and have you seen the lines for the LCBO?

But you don’t need me to tell you all that. Those thoughts are running through your brain every time you look up from an email, travel to the kitchen for another snack break, or wait during that awkward pause between one Netflix show and the next (can we all agree that Netflix should just take down that “Are you still watching…” message right now?). I’m not going to talk about any of that because what we really need heading into week 4 of quarantine, is each other.

I’ve never been closer to my family and friends.

Quarantine has made connecting with one another somehow feel scandalous, which means we want to do it all the more (Season 2 of Fleabag anyone?). I never logged so many hours on What’s App, Zoom and my plain old phone. I’ve done online dinners, Zoom happy hours and daily check ins. I’ve caught up with friends I haven’t spoken to in over a year, I’ve shared bread recipes and bake porn pictures with my mother-in-law and I finally picked up the dang phone to call aunts and uncles. I’ve never been so in touch and up-to-date about the lives of the people I care about.

And it’s kinda great.  

For those of us who are lucky enough to be working from home, this pandemic has given us back something we were all struggling for: time. Time to take a beat, take a breath, to connect. And I realize I’m saying this from a place of total privilege – I’m working from home, I’m quarantined with a person I love very much (who has been fixing up the house to keep busy), we’re not entirely broke yet, and my family is safe (my mum and stepdad got one of the last flights out of New Zealand, putting a rather dramatic end on their honeymoon). Which is exactly why I’m celebrating the little things, and trying to appreciate this quaran-time together, apart.

Now go call your college roommate.