Lockdown Lessons

In the last year, a lot of people have tried to improve themselves during their time in lockdown or take up a new hobby or learn something new and, since lockdown is kind of ending here in Ireland, I’ve decided to have a look at what Lockdown Lessons I’ve learned. Some were great, some not so much but as with everything in life you learn to take the good with the bad. I’m hoping this will be mostly positive things but high chances are that most things will be pretty serious but all I can do is be honest with you all above anything else. I also understand that some people will have no interest in this and that’s okay but if you stick around to read, thank you. So, let’s see how much I’ve learned (or not). 

Lesson 1: Fads Are Not My Thing

Remember when everyone was baking and making banana bread. Yeah, that was a non-starter for me. I saw all these ideas to battle the boredom of being at home continuously and none of them worked for me. I had slim to no interest in beating the blues by baking. For me, exercise was the thing for me (and, believe me, I’m not the fittest, most active or even the healthiest person ever) because I could get out and be alone with my thoughts. There is only so much time you can spend living in such close proximity to people before you get sick of them, even if they’re your family.

Lesson 2: Addictive Much?

Once I start something I enjoy I will keep going back to it until I find something else to focus all my attention on. Bad personality trait? Probably but it means I’ve managed to finish a lot of video games over lockdown. I was genuinely concerned for a while at my inability to stick with things but then I decided to start gaming properly again, dedicating time to playing games I really loved and, voilà, I was focusing and kicking ass. Though it’s probably a sign that I have addictive tendencies, I did realise that just because I don’t do something every single day that doesn’t mean that I don’t still enjoy that thing. 

Lesson 3: You Can Get Lonely

No matter how much of an introvert you are, you will eventually get lonely. I generally consider myself very introverted but after spending a while at home with my family making jokes that no one else but me understood I realised that I need my friends a lot more than I realised. Don’t get me wrong, I love my friends dearly but I also enjoy time alone and, naturally, too much of anything can make you sick. I got lonely, very down and, to be very honest, I’m still struggling with it now. It’s easy to say you’re fine, it’s another thing to genuinely mean it.

Lesson 4: Mental Health Matters

I struggled a lot with my mental health and self image over lockdown and I’m working on myself to do my best to put it all back together again. Lockdown was originally going to be a few weeks but the extensions kept being announced and eventually I became very cynical about ever being allowed out of lockdown again and everything else really and negativity just brings about more negativity. It wasn’t pretty and I refused to talk about it with people because I didn’t want to be a burden to them. Firstly, to anyone who feels or has felt that way: You are not a burden. Your feelings make you human and they are who you are. In that time, I wrote a lot and, even though a lot has been trashed since, I’ve learned that speaking about your problems, getting them off your chest is a good start to dealing with them.

Lesson 5: Multi-lingual?

Yeeeeeaaaaa-no. The vaguely threatening owl, Duo, did not help me become fluent in any of the multiple languages I tried to learn no matter how slyly he threatened me. Simple reason why? Because the way Duolingo teaches languages doesn’t suit the way I learn. So, if you’re like me and you failed to learn that language you decided to try pick up, cut yourself some slack. Maybe the owl wasn’t teaching in a way that suited you. It’s not always your fault besides who starts teaching a language by teaching random words and not general greetings first?

Lesson 6: It’s all in the Planning Details

One thing that has been giving me joy recently is planning. Generally, I wing it but this time around plans needed to be made. What is being planned you ask? My birthday next year. According to some people, *cough*Niamh*cough* It’s a big deal and we had to do something to celebrate so, all going well, Niamh and I shall be going to our first Grand Prix next year. I won’t specify which one or when but it is adding an extra drive to keep moving forward and another goal for me to achieve and I’m excited to see how it all turns out.

The Final Lesson

So, simply put, the lesson I’ve learned is to be kind to yourself and cut yourself some slack. Do things your way and create achievable goals to encourage you forward. Just because things don’t work for you doesn’t mean that it is your fault and that though things may look really dark it’s in those times that you are closest to the turning point. So when you meet challenges along the way it probably means you’re going in the right direction. We are never given more than we can handle even if sometimes we feel overwhelmed.