Quarantine reminds us who we really are

The quarantine has a silver lining for a working mom who had lost a sense of self after having children. Being cooped up in the house and not going through the day-today of waking up early, working out, showering, getting kids ready for the day, going to work, coming home, making dinner, putting kids to bed — breaking this mundane cycle has opened my creative side and I have been able to read more, do art projects, garden with my kids and take online classes. The quarantine in a lot of ways made me normal again.

Yes, moving forward I will be wearing a mask and possibly gloves when I go out. And now I will wait to put my 6-month-old in day care. Yes, I will probably have to work from home more often now that the pandemic has happened. These are all concrete changes. However, the change of my mindset is how I want to move forward.

The disruption of the pandemic broke my routine and opened my mind in a way that reminds me of my early 20s, when I didn’t have the responsibility of children and being a wife. But my new mindset is more sophisticated due to experience, maturity and becoming a mom. Therefore, I am grateful for the pandemic. It has allowed me to tap into a part of me that I forgot existed.

I will look back at this quarantine period with nostalgia. My creative mindset is now tapped into and I refuse to let go of it. That is how life will be changed forever for me after this pandemic.

Erica Mittendorff, University City