It’s (your) Corona Time

(Reading time: 3 mins)

Now that we have our five-step plan, we’re five steps closer to the end. But is anyone really thinking about these steps?

Will these steps be fully-grown adults strides or a bumbling baby’s first attempt at walking? Only time will tell, and our only certainty right now is that we have a few more weeks of solitary confinement ahead.

I started this blog back in 2015, and the very first post I wrote was about starting. Ironic really, given that I dodged it for the longest time.

I never shared it on Facebook or Instagram, I never talked about it with my friends, and it was something that embarrassed me because who even reads or writes these days?

For the whole of 2015, it got 14 views. 14. One. Four. And I’m pretty sure some of them were me! The others most definitely my mom. (Edit: Niamh just informed me it was all her – she used to just click on it randomly for moral support – I don’t deserve her <3)

The only thing that we’re sure of is the fact that we have free time, and lots of it. If we didn’t have free time, we would want it, and now that we have it, what are we going to do with it?

That’s a question I’ve been asking myself these past few days. What to do with all this time?

Do I want to try something new? Start writing again? Try something that I failed at before? Do I need to read more? Can I play guitar? Could I be a YouTuber?

All of these thoughts have been with me since Leo’s announcement that school will remain closed until September. I’m a teacher and September is pretty far away, but so are May and June. We could accomplish so much if we just started.

This old blogpost is about starting. It’s about trying something you’ve always wished for, but never reached for. It’s about why we want to start, and what starting meant for me all the way back in 2015 when I was only a lickle boy!

The time we are currently living in is unprecedented, we have heard this word on a continual basis since Leo first took to the stand. But think back over all the unprecedented things that you’ve done since this started.

The baking. The charity-donating. The painting. The world-record breaking runs. The FaceTiming of old friends. The binging of new series. The scrolling on TikTok. The Tiger King. Online shopping. Carol fuckin’ Baskin. Self-care. The postman’s schedule. Obsessing over Connell’s chain.

These things take unprecedented amounts of time, and we are busy people. But then our lives stopped. We started to spend more time doing things that we really enjoy. However, this free time will also stop, and when you look back, what will you say?

Will you have used it wisely, will you have wasted it, and will you be wishing for it again? (The free time, not another outbreak!)

The point I’m making is start something. You wouldn’t be reading this if I didn’t start. Starting is difficult, but living with regrets is difficulter!

Use this as your wake-up call, what are you going to do for the next few weeks? Write it down, think about it, doubt yourself, think about it some more, and then start anyway – start where you are, do what you can, and use what you have.

I don’t know how vain you need to be to quote yourself but here goes nothing – final line of blogpost 2015 and final line once more – what are you waiting for?

(Click to relive the glory days and my very first blogpost ever.)