COVID-19 - EVEN IF YOU'RE NOT INFECTED, YOU'RE AFFECTED
COVID-19 is taking over our social media feeds, Twitter, our evening news, our grocery stores, our travel plans, and our moods. And the simple fact is this:
COVID-19 WILL AFFECT YOU EVEN IF YOU AREN’T INFECTED
Most people fall into one of these two categories:
This is ridiculous, YOLO … it’s like the flu or a cold, it’s not a big deal .. I’m young, I’m not going to die … I wish people would stop buying toilet paper
This is scary, I’m going to prepare for the worst and educate myself as much as I can … please pass the wine over and get me some more goddamn toilet paper!
Tomorrow I was supposed to hop on an airplane to fly down to Los Angeles with my husband to go the finale taping of The Bachelor … you may remember when I designed a website for Chris Harrison … well, this coming week was supposed to be my celebration for all that hard work. When the Seattle area (where I live) became the epicenter for the Coronavirus, it made me rethink my priorities and what life looked like NOW and I canceled my plans to travel. Upsetting to say the least … but that’s just a teeny tiny part and in the scheme of things, a luxury that doesn’t even top the list of the WORST ways that COVID-19 is affecting the lives of my family and people I know who live in a highly infected area (like Washington state) … below is a list … and some photos of my family taken by Alante Photography:
SCHOOL DISTRICTS CLOSING DOWN
Last week the Northshore School District where my kids attend school closed … as they put it: for up to 2 weeks. Now, I’m “lucky” in the fact that I work from home, so the struggle so many parents are facing for either: A. not working, B. finding childcare, or C. switching to working from home isn’t an added stress for me … but let’s break those options down real quick:
A: Not working … how many people are so financially stable that they can just NOT work for a bit … and who knows how long that ‘bit’ lasts! The worry and stress of being made to choose NOT to work because your kids have to be home is something I can’t even fathom and I feel for those parents who are put in this position because their job isn’t one that can be done from home.
B: Finding childcare … this sounds impossible to me … the whole worry of ‘spreading this virus’ is so loud right now that putting a bunch of ‘might be infected / might not’ kids together in a group is probably the last thing anyone wants … so then it comes down to finding someone who can essentially ‘nanny’ for you or just have your kids at their house while you go to work … not easy during a time like this.
C: Switching to working from home … probably the best option: you can still bring in an income and you can be there with your kids … however, speaking from experience, the GUILT you feel while you ignore your kids to work and they have Fortnite or YouTube Kids as their babysitter is a very real and heavy feeling that I have been experiencing for the last two days … so while there are benefits, there are also downfalls. Also, my kids always decide that their time to fight and whine is the exact time I start a call with a potential client … so that is always a good time too ;)
REMOTE LEARNING / SCHOOL FROM HOME
As if A, B, and C from above weren’t already terrible options for anyone to be forced to figure out … we now have something called: REMOTE LEARNING … which means, we set up school in our house. Yup. So, for me, who works from home, I also have to run school at the same time that I am trying to make money. Remember that guilt I was talking about above? Times that by 100 now … because I have to decide: make money and buy food and pay our bills OR keep my kids focused on their schooling from home OR (the worst one) do both and lose my mind, my hair, and my sanity … and I don’t know about your kids, but I’m not exactly someone they like to listen to when it feels like a weekend day at home … stay tuned … we’ll see how this whole remote learning from home turns out on Monday … I’m f*cking terrified.
FINANCIAL STRESS
While we are: dealing with the stress of not contracting a new virus that’s running rampant, trying to figure out how to continue to have a job while schools are shutting down all around, and becoming teachers and home schoolers … bills keep on coming … in fact, in some cases, we are spending MORE because we are stocking up on supplies (like toilet paper hahaha) and in the case of many, we are making LESS during this time. I will just say it: I’m terrified … as a small business owner, who relies on business from other small business owners … welp, it’s a very scary time. I have friends who work at restaurants and spas and the number of people in our area who come to their place of work is decreasing by the day … the terrible traffic in Seattle has vanished which means: WAY LESS PEOPLE OUT THERE SUPPORTING LOCAL BUSINESSES … people get paid because the business they work for gets paid … yeah, Heather: DUH!! Ok, well if it’s ‘duh’ then everyone should be scared sh*tless because as I said up top: the fact that you aren’t worried about getting infected should maybe be the least of your worries … it’s how this f’er will AFFECT you that is the worst part in some cases.
FAMILY MEMBERS WHO ARE AT GREATER RISK OF DYING
Everyone I know has at least one person in their family who SHOULD NOT GET this virus … as in: if they get it they will most likely not survive it. That’s scary! Those people running around on social saying: Calm down, you aren’t gonna die … clearly don’t get that there are people REALLY DYING from this … and their life DOES MATTER.
Things are shutting down and schools are closing not because we all thrive on the drama of this sh*t or because the media is blowing this thing out of proportion … but because there isn’t yet a vaccine that AT RISK people can take … and therefore we all need to put our lives on hold to avoid spreading it to people who could be in some really big trouble health wise. Hence: stocking up on supplies like toilet paper!! The more toilet paper I have at home, the less I will go out in public and unknowingly pass it along and spread it even more. Get it? Good ;) So, go buy some more toilet paper and shut up about it … lol
SPORTS AND LESSONS OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL
Give me an afternoon watching my son Grayson playing baseball and I’ll give you the biggest smile you’ve ever seen … baseball season is here and all over the area we live, practices and jamborees are getting canceled, pushed back, or specific players who were around people who were infected are being told they can’t go to practice … I realize that ‘big picture’, missing a few baseball practices/games or piano lessons isn’t the BIGGEST deal in the world, but it feels like it to my kids … and it’s one more way that even if you aren’t infected by the Coronavirus, you will be AFFECTED because it’s completely out of your control and these things will be decided for you and your kids.
ARE THERE MORE THINGS THAT ARE SH*TTY DURING ALL THIS?
Yes, of course … I have only scratched the surface of all the ways our lives up here in the PNW have been changed right now … and all around the world the news is very dire … the United States keeps finding more cases in states other than WA and it’s incredibly stressful … for me, the scariest part is:
THE UNKNOWN
… will this thing mutate even more? Will the cells break down and create an even worse virus that will affect younger people more? When does it end? Does it need to reach everyone before it finally stops?
But IMO, what really needs to happen asap???
PEOPLE NEED TO STOP COMPARING THIS F*CKER TO THE FLU OR A COLD
Just because ‘you’ might not die ‘yet’ from this thing, doesn’t mean you should be insensitive to people who could. If this was the flu, there would be a vaccine for ‘at risk people’ to take … and there isn’t one YET. Let’s all be a little kinder and more understanding …
XO~ Heather
