Monotony and fear through living in isolation through a global pandemic

Wake up; open the laptop; eat; go to sleep. This is about as much excitement I had while isolating from a deadly virus that has been affecting the outside world. The feeling of monotony only became worse as time went on during the time that this pandemic continued to disrupt our daily routines and life in general. Luckily, this dangerous virus did not infect any member of my family. I would like to believe that the reason that my family was not infected was through rigorous isolation, extreme caution when going outside and having contact with other people and disinfecting very often and above all, luck.

Going to university without having a global pandemic in the back of your mind might seem boring and mundane, but imagine being stuck in your room at all times. One would think that being surrounded by family, having a vast selection of movies and TV shows to binge watch would provide great entertainment, but these activities can only entertain you so much. After some time had passed from the initial outbreak of the virus in Kosovo, watching anything other than the news seemed weird to me. The movie-watching experience was skewed by the virus, regarding the fact that I was noticing the characters were so close to each other and not respecting social distancing rules. Although they were filmed during a completely different time, the same feelings evoked themselves. The difference in lifestyle was far too big from the movies compared to real life, so noticeable that I personally could not enjoy them. Such dynamics only worsened my main source of entertainment while quarantining.

Despite the fact that you could live in the same household as your family members, you would have to be very careful of not being in close contact with them because of potential infection even if none of you were infected. The fear that people had regarding the virus and fearing of infecting their loved ones, would prove very harmful in the future. People were fearful of many different things that they had not previously been exposed to. First and foremost, people were afraid of the virus infecting and potentially killing them or their loved ones. Secondly, another element of fear was the scarcity of food and other hygienic products that the isolation would put forth. Such feelings of collective fear, would heavily impact society as a whole and its day to day functionality would be hindered.

While I would like to see that this pandemic is over, it is still ongoing and as dangerous as ever. New versions of the virus keep popping up around the world, and even with the development of the vaccine, the light at the end of the tunnel seems very dim. I hope whoever is reading this essay, is going through better times than we as a collective are going through now.