Monday Minute #6
Quarantine Resolutions
Writing lists has always been a helpful exercise to calm my racing brain. Spending all this time at home alone, I find myself constantly writing lists. This week, as I wrapped up a most unusual semester of teaching, my lists gravitated toward ways to recalibrate our mindset and pledge to do better when we emerge from this period of uncertainty, isolation, disorientation, and fear.
Stuff I miss, and vow to appreciate more, once we get through this:
- Sunlight on my face
- Squeezing onto a subway car — shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers — to try to make it to an appointment on time
- Sitting outside at a NYC restaurant on a spring day
- Leisurely shopping at Trader Joe’s for random stuff like sunflower seed butter and coconut chips
- The ability to dodge phone calls with a text of “Hey, sorry can’t talk, I’m at dinner!”
- The feeling of community swagger at the end of a fitness class
- Wandering solo through an unfamiliar city
Situations I will never complain about again:
- Waiting more than 10 minutes for the subway
- Standing behind a novice traveler in the TSA Pre-Check line
- Flight delays
- Scrunching up in a window seat on a plane
- Squishing into an elevator at work
- Being pressured to high-five a stranger in an exercise class
- Trudging through New York humidity, rain, wind, snow, or any other form of inclement weather outside of my apartment
Things we can learn how to do better:
- Communicate in virtual spaces — listening more, talking less
- Deliver education more effectively, in person and online
- Creatively engage and include diverse voices in virtual classrooms and offices
- Respectfully disagree with one another
- Admit we don’t have all the answers
- Listen to the experts
- Acknowledge that business-as-usual needs to change forever
- Model respect and appreciation for others’ circumstances
What do you miss? What will you appreciate more, once we get through this? What won’t you complain about ever again? What are you excited to learn how to do better? What are you hopeful that others will learn how to do better? I’d love to learn and gain inspiration from you.
