Written by Francesca Ortiz

Published on April 10, 2020

While this quarantine has given many people an opportunity to live their best lives and experience their introverted fantasy of doing everything from home, this hasn’t been many others’ reaction. One thing that I haven’t noticed until now, my routine dictated my worth to me. Waking up, working out, going to class then work in a religious order was what kept me going. Due to this shift in my routine, I’ve had multiple times where I’ve been at my lowest point, especially as an extrovert who often had to distract myself with outdoor social activities to prevent going to a lonely, depressive and counterproductive state. 

In my home right now, we’re operating on data due to an outage in the neighborhood since Sunday morning. So I no longer have the access to binge watching movies on Hulu, I resorted to Instagram at least until every single post makes me even more anxious and embarrassed that I’m spending my time alone, unproductive and desperate for an escape. 

That escape for me has been sewing and The Sims.  In the morning I’ll spend hours creating the perfect Sims family and world and at night I’ll sew a weird fitted romper with my mom. 

One thing that has benefited me is staying off social media because it’s only more bad news or people telling me what I should be doing instead of laying in bed. Sometimes laying in bed is an improvement from crying all day, or distancing yourself from close ones. 

We’re all having a hard time.  It’s okay to not have that pristine routine or even touch your to do list. What is important is knowing what is right for you right now, stretch your legs, get some water, then go back to sleep.