It’s officially fall and I’m not afraid to say I can’t wait for Thanksgiving. Fall and Thanksgiving really allow me to think about the things I’m thankful for. However, I don’t want this year’s list to be the typical list of things you hear every year. This year’s list of things to be thankful for is going to be about things I realized I was thankful for during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The first thing I realized I was thankful for during quarantine was my car. After long days of doing online schooling and working at a fast food restaurant, my little convertible Volkswagen Beetle was my escape. I could go for long late night country road cruises. The driving really helped clear my head. My car also allowed me to get out of the house and have fun while still being safe.
The next thing I realized I was thankful for was fast food. Before COVID, I did a lot of bashing on fast food; I only wanted to have home cooked meals or go to a sit down restaurant. But with everything being carry-out only I decided to give fast food a try simply because it was easier. I was grateful that people still catered to me despite everything going on. I also came to the conclusion that fast food is actually pretty good and is sometimes better than eating at home for every single meal.
The third thing I became thankful for was hair and nail salons. Being stuck with myself everyday all day made me want some change and made me think about how unhappy I was with my appearance. One day I got so stir crazy I made a hair appointment at one of the only salons open, I got highlights and a cut. It looks pretty good if I do say so myself, my confidence was instantly boosted. However, I was sad to say goodbye to like eight inches of my hair. A week or so later I decided to get my nails done. Once again I was feeling down about something and the best way to cure sadness is by spending money. I made myself an appointment for that day. I got long turquoise acrylics. I felt like a boss bitch, and I never felt better. So I guess what I’m saying is that I’m thankful that these workers made me feel better about myself in such a crazy time. It’s amazing that they didn’t turn me away.
Soon everything was closed so there was no longer anything to do, so I quickly turned towards Netflix as my sole entertainment. I’ve had Netflix for several years but I never looked at it as something to be thankful for until now. Netflix became my cure to boredom and my sleep aid. Whenever I was bored I could ditch my boring life and watch some other person’s exciting TV show life. It also provided background noise for my daily naps.
Then when I had watched everything of my interest on Netflix, I turned towards social media. I know what you’re thinking, why would you be thankful for social media, everybody has it? I’m thankful for social media because it allowed me to stay in contact with my friends and family that I wasn’t able to see during this time. I also craved attention from anybody close to my age, being around only adults and small children really does something to you. Social media was where I could make connections with people my age and that was exactly what I needed.
I tend to get bored really easily so as you can probably guess, I got bored of social media. After that I leaned towards music as my entertainment. I already have a deep connection with music but nothing good has been released in a while. But for some reason I guess quarantine made several celebrities release their best music yet. I spent hours listening to new songs trying to learn their lyrics and understand their meaning. In other words my boredom was nonexistent for several weeks.
The final thing that I became thankful for was clothing and makeup. Things began opening again and I was tired of weaing my pajamas all day, I was ready to get done up and look presentable. Doing my makeup and putting on a cute outfit really made me feel good, better than I had been feeling the whole quarantine. I was also amazed that everything still fit after all the fast food I had eaten.
Lots of people say COVID cancelled our lives and that it’s a really horrible thing. Yes it’s a terrible disease and yes it has caused a lot of trouble in the economy but for me it has also been a blessing in disguise. It has let me do a lot of needed thinking. I’m thankful for that and I’m glad that I could share what I learned I was thankful for because of COVID.