Deep Breaths

-
I'm feeling particularly mortal. It's a refreshing feeling caused by a not-so-refreshing pandemic. Living is a precarious state - I am grateful for the tight rope.

Sometimes, things scare us, and they are horrible, but they remind us of what is really important in life. The novel coronavirus is the most applicable example here; it's funny, spellcheck keeps telling me coronavirus isn't a word. I think people deal with pandemics like this in one of three ways: fear, denial, or humor. I choose the latter, not as a way of deflecting the severity of the situation, but to stay a little happy. A little bit of happy works wonders.

So, here's the scoop. Where I live, school has been canceled from March 13th to the 27th. The grocery stores are mobbed. Costco is pretty much out of toilet paper. People are frightened and confused and misinformation is everywhere and gosh, I hope Tom Hanks'll be okay. When stuff happens, we're forced to see how great our lives were in the first place. I have always taken my health for granted. Teenagers have an invincibility complex, and I'm no exception. My physical well-being is not a given anymore. I'll miss school, despite the early mornings and dull English lectures and baffling logarithms. I'll miss talking to Marin in choir. I'll miss playing "Honey, I Love You" in theatre. It's only two weeks, for now. But that's a pretty decent chunk of time. Apart from all the school we're missing, I think it's safe to say that everyone is freaked out. I keep thinking about the kids at my school who rely on free and reduced lunches. I keep thinking about the families that can't afford health care or insurance. I keep thinking about how much racism this pandemic is going to drench the Asian and Asian-American community in.

Ladybird (gotta mention Greta Gerwig at least once a post, don't I?) said "I wish I could live through something." It's 2020. We are living through something. This is history. Kids'll read about this in social studies classes in fifty years. It's weird, to say the least.

Right now, I think the most important thing is to take this day by day. Humans are social creatures, and however necessary quarantines may be, they're not great for our tribe-oriented minds. Check in with your friends. Face Time people. Try not to drown in the endless sea of news. Take care of you, and of each other. Sleep enough. Eat well. Wash up. Two weeks at home for me is pretty much synonymous with bad depression. I'm going to do my best not to let that happen. I am going to stay busy and go on walks and watch movies. I'm going to do my chemistry Web Assign and keep at Macbeth. I'm going to take a deep breath and keep on living life.

I was thinking about the stuff lives are made of. At the end of the day, they're really just a bunch of completely ordinary days sandwiched together. Routines on loop, habits acted upon, and relationships we've grown accustomed to are the foundations of lives. In this extraordinarily odd moment in history, I'm going to do my best to keep living ordinarily. I'm going to check in with people and help best I can. I will be kind.

For my fellow kiddos at home for the next two long weeks, here are some (early) March favorites to maybe keep you occupied:

Songs
"Somebody Else" - The 1975
"Fine Line" - Harry Styles
"Ice Cream" - Sarah McLachan
"Old Pine" - Ben Howard
"Blood" - The Middle East
"I Know" - King Princess
"...Familiar Place" - Lucy Dacus
"Chewing Cotton Wool" - The Japanese House
"Racing Strips" - Bombay Bicycle Club
"Canada" - Lauv and Alessia Cara

Books
Henry, Himself - Steward O'Nan
My Year of Rest and Relaxation - Ottessa Moshfegh
The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid
Imaginary Friend - Stephen Chbosky

Movies, Shows, Videos
Parasite
The Hundred-Foot Journey
Brooklyn
La La Land
Brooklyn
Roma
Gilmore Girls
The Cool Girl Trope, Explained
Anne with an E Is Pretty Great...
The Opportunity Gap in US Public Education
Florence Pugh Eats 11 English Dishes

 It's gonna be a weird time for a while, but we'll get through it. Try to stay calm and safe. I wish you all a healthy gut microbiome and a strong immune system.

Hang in there, and don't forget to take a deep breath now and again.
- Maya

Photo by Elijah Hiett on Unsplash, Photo by Roberto Salinas on Unsplash,
Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash, Photo by Victoria Alexander on Unsplash

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

You don't hate the summers/ You're just afraid of the space: May Favorites

-
Image
I sort of feel like I'm wading through a giant vat of chocolate pudding. Hot, sticky, sweaty chocolate pudding. That's how summer always feels to me, but hey, I will endure scorching sunshine and wasps flying into my bedroom if it means fall will come. There's a lyric in one of my favorite songs from this month (Maine by Noah Kahan) that goes something like this: you don't hate the summers/ you're just afraid of the space. Chocolate pudding aside, this lyric really struck a chord. I think what I dread so miserably about the next three months is all of the hazy monotony that comes with leisure. Drifting has never been something I'm particularly good at, so I'll have to create projects for myself, but that seems like a lot of work. And so my cycle of purposelessness continues; misery, realizing that misery can be easily remedied, and deciding that the easy remedy requires too much effort. Maybe I just don't like who I become during these months. Maybe i
Read more

My Life's Purpose Is A Bamboo Plant

-
Image
...and it ain't even a real bamboo plant. Hey, everyone. I'm Maya - welcome back to The Avocado and Me.  Before we begin today's post, I want to take you all on a little road trip back to July 2nd, 2018. On this day in history, I drank a lot of iced chai tea while writing a blog post titled, "1,000 Page Views!" Let me tell you - I was so freaking excited to write that post. One-thousand views was a really big deal for this little speck of a teenage girl. I felt so accomplished, and so proud of how far The Avocado and Me  had come. Now, a little less than a year from July 2, 2018, there have been approximately 7,068 page views on this here blog. Everyone, we septupled the number of page views on The Avocado and Me  in less than a year. That is insane. I am so incredibly grateful for you, for the time you dedicate to reading my words, and for this journey we've gone on together. You mean the world to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And now, my loves,
Read more