10 Things I Learned with the pandemic

The 10 most important lessons that COVID-19 taught me this past year.

Photo by Denys Nevozhai on Unsplash

As 2020 has come to an end and the most awaited year ever has started, there are a lot of people out there writing their goals and resolutions for 2021, hoping that it will be a better year (as if the year itself was the one that made the choices) and even choosing to forget a whole year and never look back.

As devastating and heart breaking as it was for a lot of people around the world, I think there are a lot of things we can choose to remember and learn from. So, here are 10 things I learned in 2020:

1. There is always something you can learn from everything, bad or good. You just have to have your eyes and mind open and not be stuck on your own head all the time. Maybe this was an opportunity for us humans to look back on everything we have chosen in life and and do better.
2. This is something that happened to every one, the whole world at the same time. It is something that is connecting each and everyone of us. I think there’s some great power in that and something good could come out of it.
3. Nothing is urgent, everything can wait. All those super urgent projects you had to hand in, those tasks your boss asked you to make, all those events and classes you had to attend. NOTHING was urgent, everything had to be rescheduled and it was ok.
4. We do not know how to go slow. We want to make everything right now and all at the same time. We don’t know how to go through life slowly, enjoying every part of it, the day to day little moments, without hurries.
5. We do not know how to take a break, to rest, to take some time off. We are so used to work all the time that the moment we had to take a break we were loosing it. It was a good moment to take back some of that lack of sleep we have, to talk to our loved ones, to take care of ourselves, and most of all, to take it all in, after all, it is a pandemic! We are so used to work that a lot of people went into this “productivity” craziness wanting to create something, read a million books, take on new hobbies, launch a business, learn to cook. I am not saying this things are bad, I’m just saying it is also healthy to rest and unhealthy to feel the pressure to be productive and feel guilty if you are not.
6. We do not know how to actually be with the people we live with. Many couples were going crazy because they could no longer put up with their partner, moms in crisis because they did not know how to be with their children all day, teenagers with depression and anxiety because they did not know how to live with their family.
7. Also, we do not know how to be with ourselves for long periods of time. Social life was taken away from us and we don’t know how to live with that, and the vices attached to them (like getting drunk every weekend with your friends).
8. We are control freaks, we want to have everything in order and don’t want life to take over. Uncertainty unbalances us. Mental health issues are on the rise because we don’t know how to act, how to think, how to feel.
9. We suddenly know how little we need and how much we already have. Life was reduced to the essential.
10. Family is everything. Perhaps the only thing that made us listen and follow all government health measures was the fear of loosing our loved ones. And now with 2021 starting, the one wish almost everyone has is to have another year with their families healthy.

And there are a whole lot of things I could go on with, but I think these ones are the most important lessons from 2020 I have. I look forward to reading what you consider to be the most important lessons 2020 has taught us.