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The 10th month of the Coronovirus epidemic

How to overcome the writhing pain of the quarantine

By Susan LeePublished 3 years ago 3 min read
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Ice cream galore!

Wow..About this time last year, I never could have imagined that this world would be in the situation it is in today. I mean.."quarantine," what is that? (I would have thought in January 2020). Now, "quarantining" feels like second nature. What does "quarantining" really look like and what has it looked like for me?

It feels like a lot of time solo..which is not my forte. It's a lot of time thinking about trivial and big things, yet I feel adrift in this surreal space where time seems to lapse into longer stretches than the normal 24-hour circadian period. It is a lot of time encountering strangers who are in a bad mood (seemingly) for no reason or just feeling a sense of dark eerieness when I stop out onto the street in downtown Chicago or in the suburbs when it should feel like a normal sun-drenched day. It is a lot of time meeting people who are mask nazis - people who I don't know why are they are talking to me or think it is okay to just approach and tell a stranger in a grocery line or in a mall what to do with my best efforts to don a mask and ward off the risk of this epidemic. Hell, as if things weren't difficult enough. It is a lot of time wondering "what-if's" or what choices I could have made differently had I suddenly had the gift of prescience about a year ago and know what is going to befall this world tomorrow (think Twilight with Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson and the Voltari's and their ability to read thoughts).

As I go through my umpteenth carton of ice cream (Ben & Jerry developed a new ice cream flavor called milk and cookies, did you know?) or grab that bottle of wine as I try not to succumb to the pain of the quarantine or watch reruns or try to invent a new recipe in my head or scroll through another disheartening round of the news cycle on a given day, I keep asking myself -- when is this going to end? When is the epidemic going to release us? One thing is for sure -- this world and our culture as we know it has and will be changed. Yesterday, I found myself at a large retailer's and trying to make an eye exam - what should have been a routine 5-minute conversation turned into a 30-minute encounter where the receptionist and I struggled to make ourselves heard through our masks. If this wasn't reminiscent of some movie scene, I don't know what is!

Fortunately, I've been engaging in some kind of a stay-cation where I've been indulging myself in things I wouldn't normally do - getting bangs on a whim, for example, or calling my grandmother in Daegu more to get a glimpse into how the Coronovirus is affecting South Korea to appreciating the joys and quirkiness of small events and happenings in the day to engaging in more in-depth conversation with my friends. I've even taken a Pro Barre ballet class - which is something I never expected that I would do this time last year - because the class and its accompanying piano music has motivated me and carried me to new emotional heights and a sublime state I haven't experienced in a long time! So there are some positive things to have come out of this epidemic..and yes, learning how to Zoom (which I didn't even know what Zoom was until March 2020).

And there's always ice cream! (If you need advice on an ice cream flavor, feel free to contact me - I've become a de facto expert :)

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About the Creator

Susan Lee

I graduated from Stanford University in 2002 with a BA in International Relations and a minor in Psychology and have a Masters in International Affairs from Georgetown University.

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