Coming to terms with your new social life

As you’ll know by now we are on lockdown in the UK. The dreaded term – buzzword, if you will (you probably don’t) – of the moment is now fact. Our collective daily lives are currently set in an unthinkable dystopia. Not future. Present. Spring is here, and as with every yearly growth spurt we fancy some time outside. Time with friends we haven’t braved the cold to go see over the past few months. We were all just waiting for the sunny, just pleasant enough, “still a bit cold,” “summer’s almost here” beer garden Saturday afternoons.

You might be in the midst of, or just realising, the actual impact and limitations it will have on your day-to-day. To begin with no one really knew what was going to happen. Which rules would actually be implemented, and which were merely rumours and speculations? Now that we’ve reached lockdown we still don’t have all the answers. If anything, it has generated more questions. How long will this take? Our lives on hold, no scheduled relaunch.

It’s lightly put overwhelming. It feels like being chucked over the edge of a cliff (I like many have lost my source of income, and have barely any tangible prospects of finding a new one), hanging mid-air, frozen, mind (too) active, wondering whether anything, like an enormous beanbag, will soften the blow when you land, and more so hoping a benevolent seagull will grab you and fly you to safety.

What we can take solace in is the wave of positivity seen online. It has reinstated, for many, a belief in humanity and its resilience. People everywhere are rallying together, providing support in the form of offering loneliness relief, entertainment, encouraging each other to be creative or to express their feelings. There is a sense of a true global community.

However much information and second-hand analysis (some useful, some panic inducing) we are presented with it is difficult to imagine where we’ll end up, and for now I guess we have to take it day by day. There’s an opportunity here to see it as an exercise in acceptance and patience. Accept that you cannot at all times control your surroundings. Be patient with yourself and others.

You could be thinking: “So what do I do while I’m accepting hardcore and becoming a patience oracle?” I don’t know. Maybe learn a new recipe or language. You’re probably already learning a Tik Tok dance. Read a book, start writing a book, offer your views on books. Be proactive and update your CV for when companies start hiring again. Or relax, ring your nan, stretch, have a glass of wine, have a wank, have a cry, sleep till noon, watch that series, get ready to, as per the meme, “go to da living room,” and breathe. Stay positive, or don’t when you can’t. Your mood will fluctuate, learn how to deal with it. We might come out after all this as better, more well-adjusted, multi-talented people. That’s my goal anyway.

Most importantly, remember that it won’t be forever.