Corona Diaries: Living Amongst Walls
The first days of quarantine certainly feel like a distant memory; a reminiscence of a faraway occurrence. However, as bizarre as it sounds, it is not so. I remember laying in my bed scrolling mindlessly through twitter, as I usually tend to do with or without quarantine.
Suddenly, as I read a viral tweet claiming that Shakespeare wrote King Lear during his own quarantine back in the times of the plague, I had an epiphany. I started to ponder on what my goals were, what I could take away from the quarantine itself and how I could transform my mentality, which was inevitably plunged into negativity, into a positive one.
I immediately took a screenshot of the tweet which was responsible for my sudden revelation and made it a mission to produce my own King Lear. Whatever that meant for me.
If social distancing has you down, just remember that Shakespeare most likely wrote “King Lear,” “Macbeth,” and “Antony and Cleopatra,” during a plague-inspired quarantine between early 1605 and late 1606. https://t.co/SOp7SMn1KG
— Tim O'Brien (@TimOBrien) March 14, 2020
And so began my journey. I started trying new and healthy recipes, began practicing yoga with meditation, and simply deciding to create small habits that fooled me into normality. I began writing again, something I hadn't really done in a while; I even redecorated my vast collection of white socks, turning them into pieces I might use outside the comfort of my home.
When I was in Paris I knew exactly what I had to do; I woke up, had breakfast and jumped on the metro en route to AUP. Now, everything that we knew as familiar has more or less ceased.
Most of us have returned home and have not traveled further than the end of our streets. In these times where life can get a bit overwhelming, it is crucial to reflect on how we spend our suddenly ample amount of time and adapt to our new normal.
Life among these four walls can get a bit draining but with the help of my mighty pencil and my ever so loyal blank page, I know much is possible in times where everything seems to be submerged by a never-ending impossibility.
