2020 COVID LIFE in Review

This month marks one year since the coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. The world shut down and who could have known that we would be in this situation for that long?

Last year in March, just before the first lockdown was implemented, we were returning from a vacation in Mexico. I thought the lockdown would be just for two weeks. Then came the end of March and the lockdown was extended until the end of April. At that time I realized that unfortunately we would be in this situation for a very long time and this hit me hard. Our new normal became wearing masks anytime we went outside and to social distance from people. Lysol wipes and hand sanitizers became our best friends. Stores had “keep your distance” stickers on their windows and lines on the ground six feet apart. This ensured that social distance was respected while waiting to get inside.

It’s not fun to be restricted, to not see your family and friends anymore and to stay home 24/7 for months. Despite the challenges, it was an opportunity to slow down, shift priorities, to be present, enjoy quality time with loved ones even more and focus on what really matters.

I have personally enjoyed being home, working from home and being with my man. I enjoyed sharing our dining room table as a shared office to create a co-working space for both of us. Now is the time to reflect and I’m grateful for all the moments we had this past year. This includes all of the ups and downs, because it has helped me to grow to be stronger and we are stronger as well.

I’m also very grateful for our health. It is important now more than ever to take care of yourself and that’s exactly what we have been doing. One of our core values is to maintain a healthy lifestyle by eating healthy and making time for fitness. We had fun working out together at home when gyms were closed and we were also doing yoga together. My creative man came up with lots of fun ideas to workout and replace weights with items in our home, like our dining room bench.

He also taught me how to play chess. Around the end of May, when the Chicago weather finally got warmer, we started enjoying our rooftop, the pool and the barbecue. It made such a difference in our moods, to finally be able to spend time outside while keeping ourselves safe. We also practiced our swings at the golf range next to our place over the summer. It was one of our weekly shared activities. The warm weather allowed us to go for motorbike rides and to enjoy having drinks and food outside again at our local restaurant patios. I’m also very grateful for having been able to travel to France in September to see my family and to celebrate my mom’s 60th birthday. We took all the necessary measures to make it safe. We isolated ourselves before the travel, we took the COVID-19 PCR Test and we kept being very careful with the family, no hugging, no “bisous” (kisses in French), wearing masks and hand sanitizer was always around.

So even if this past year has been challenging, I choose to focus on the good. As Wayne Dyer said: “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”