Mental Care Is Healthy Care

We are coming up to the year mark of being in quarantine. Last year on the 11th of March I was sitting in a gym watching my alumna mater beat this powerhouse team. The gym was packed. Winning that game meant they would go onto the regional championship in hopes of making it to the state playoffs.

News was coming out that the state was cancelling different events. Then the dreaded moment came. It was a Friday morning and the players met up at the school. They found out the state cancelled the rest of the season. That means no state champ, no seniors capping off an amazing season, no more basketball for months. Tears fell and the players had to reminisce on the hard work they put on the hardwood for a virus to ultimately take away.

Those first months in quarantine felt weird. It was as if aliens were coming to abduct us (hmmm that would be a cool movie). We had family board game nights. Playing Monopoly. Yes the game of monopoly lasting dayssssss. Haven’t played it for years before COVID started and haven’t played it since March/April of last year.

Not seeing my cousins and friends was tough. There were moments when I was able to meet up but those times were rare. Not to mention that I was not able to physically go into work.

However, above all, the thing that we all need to be concerned with is mental care. How are we mentally? When we have a shut down, how do we function. Some people are introverts and they can manage on limited time of seeing people but it can still affect them. If you’re an extrovert like me, wheeeewww, being away from certain people is heart breaking.

My daily routine was home – store – food – home on repeat. I couldn’t take it anymore! Soon we had a family table talk allowing us more freedom slowly but not too fast. I understand that COVID is real and dangerous virus but it did not take away from the fact that it was and is still hard to adjust to.

Also, last year we saw people’s true colors coming out. COVID made people their own worst enemies and they at times started to say and think things that they normally wouldn’t. This was no I drank to much, that’s why I said what I said. No, a lot of people I know and witnessed said things in sober mindsets. The deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd brought the nation/world together and divided us even more as well.

From those deaths and the conversations that followed, I was mentally overwhelmed. As a black man myself, I was afraid. If I get pulled over or if a white person sees me as a threat, will I make it out alive. Part of these thoughts came after one of my youth group nights on zoom. While in youth group our leader was talking about the racial issues going on and how it made us feel. The students chimed in and it was great hearing their takes. Also, it was sad hearing their same fear I expressed, being voiced by eleven years old.

Then it was my turn. I told them that when I get pulled over, that my goal is to make it back home. I talk as proper as I can as if I’m in a job interview (It's called code switching). My youth leader said that should not be the case, that we should not have that thought that there could be a chance we won’t make it back home. I have never thought about that before.

Whenever I was in those situations my mind worked as if it was a robot. I saw the news where black people like me were shot while they were unarmed. Now, I keep my hands seen, I don’t speak up, and I make it home. Still my heart beats fast when I see the sirens even when I know it’s not for me. Mentally this past year drained me.

With this new year, let’s pause for a second. Regroup with our love ones in small groups. This past year has been mentally draining and we need to come back to spring and find peace. Go to a movie, have a social gathering, do things you never did before. Last year I started a business and now I’m stepping into youth leadership roles with church that I never thought was possible.

If you need to, go find a counselor and let go of the burden and hardship. We will get through this tough season together. COVID happened for a reason, let’s not go backwards, instead let’s Spring Forward with the new mindset we have.