Hey y’all! What’s up? I hope your spirits are staying as high as possible! Stay upbeat my dudes, it’s gonna be okay. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next week. But ya know what? Corona doesn’t rule the world, and I know for a fact that this is not the end. This won’t last forever. Who knows when it’ll let up, but I know that it will. Maybe the media thinks it is in fact, the apocalypse, but hey, it’s so not. So breathe.
Something that’s helped me more than anything is the idea that I can stay connected to my pals. While I miss so many things that were snatched away from me so quickly, the people I’ve grown to love are what I miss most of all. I took for granted the fact that I lived only a few floors away, or even living with some of them… And now I’m stuck far from them, and I’ll never live with them or even see many of them again. Now, does that bring me down? You bet. But I can choose to dwell on that, or choose to look at this in a different perspective.
It would be a complete lie if I were to say that I’m ready to ‘smile because it happened, and not cry because it’s over’. If I think enough about it, I promise you that I will cry about it. And that’s okay. As I’ve often said, feel what you feel. I’ve always pushed that idea out, but it’s so important. As I unpacked my room today from everything that I brought home, I got emotional thinking about it all. Some of my friends, I see on a regular basis, and some of them are my closest friends. It’s scary to think that I genuinely don’t know when the next time I’ll get to see them will be. It might be a long time… But it won’t be forever and I know that. But hanging up some of the photos I had in my dorm, was more than helpful. To go back and see their smiling faces, remembering the amazing times we shared together, brought a smile to my face.
It’s fair to feel cheated and upset by this. We so don’t deserve it. No one does! I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. If we do what we’re being told and stay inside, besides going insane, we’ll end this Corona madness. Also, don’t forget that we’re making history here. Kind of a weird way to be doing it, but we’re making history and we’ll be in those textbooks years from now. We’re surviving, and we will survive. And as soon as it’s safe for us to do so, we’ll get to go out and live again. But right now, we have to survive. I will never take that for granted again. Think about that amazing golden age of creation that will come after this. Everything will begin to get better… and “you’re going to be amazing”.
Don’t forget to check up on your people, they’re hurting-- everyone is hurting right now. You can literally feel so many hearts breaking. As I’ve been in Manhattan, an epicenter for this pandemic, it’s so broken. I’ve had a few professors reach out to me personally and offer their aid in any way they can. I can feel the support from so many different people. A simple text or email to someone can go a long way. Now is the time to send those meme’s in that secret meme folder you’ve had on your phone. Send someone a smile. It will be much appreciated. It can be the little things really. At times like this, what more can you ask for?
Lastly, I want to leave you with a little personal story. Going back to that technology thing I mentioned earlier, there’s some cool things you can do to make this slightly better. My friends and I had a party on Zoom! Granted, it was a little weird at first because normally, we’re loud people that tend to just scream different stories, laugh at the top of our lungs, sing fun songs, and share videos of all kinds (we’re art and theatre people, so none of that should be shocking). But just seeing my friends all together in their little boxes, taking turns just talking and being together, was more than I could have asked for. Everyone is in the same boat and we all have to just stay put, but luckily for me, we were able to stay put together. If you can, I highly, HIGHLY recommend this. Maybe you’re in college or maybe you’re not. If you have access to Zoom, Skype, Google Hangout, even HouseParty! See your friends. Cheers with them, share a story about your day, or even rant about how bad this sucks. It helps, oh trust me, it helps.
This is going to get better, but “it’s gonna get wack before it gets better”. Stay connected in any way you can, support each other through screens, and look up. Nowhere to look but up, since that’s where we’re going!
As always, I’m gonna leave you with some song lyrics. Music is my thing and I love some good dramatic lyrics to end with…
“Stop there, and let me correct it, I wanna live life from a new perspective”. (New Perspective by Panic! At The Disco)
Stand Clear Of The Closing Doors Please,
Lex