Hi there,

Entering our eighth week of Stay at Home, I have been reflecting on what finding grace in quarantine looks like. Kickstarting a new career just months before quarantine began has been interesting to say the least. Evaluating how this virus has halted and since shifted every routine I came to know has led to some silver linings. By recognizing and sharing them, I hope we can find positive and lasting takeaways from these trying times.

Responses to the stresses of our new day-to-day life runs the gamut. I have many friends and peers struggling with literal and metaphorical losses while others with natural introverted tendencies are thriving on this time at home to rest, reset and recoup. I’d say I fall somewhere in between those two. This time has taught me how important it is to respect everyone’s own experience and how your own doesn’t have to invalidate anyone else’s. 

As for career, 2020 felt like a pressure cooker for the future I was trying to build for myself. I felt the need to do, do, do and that any unscheduled moment was a waste of productivity. Being forced to stay home has been a guiding lesson on how beneficial taking the time to observe, plan, learn, and hone skills can be for building a new career or refreshing a 40-year one.

We all look back at “pre-quarantine life” longingly - dinners and drinks with friends at restaurants, sporting events and concerts, weddings and parties in general! I do miss that, of course, but this break has also given me the time to do so many of those “should” dos we always talk about yet never seem to find the time for - like calling and reconnecting with old friends (all the way back to high school - hi guys!) and spending an incredible amount of time with my family as this order has brought us back under one roof.

I won’t miss this when it’s all over but I will look back fondly at the quiet resettling of priorities and be thankful for the pause it has given me. I hope we can, together, come out of this a slightly changed collective of people trying to do the best we can with the cards dealt.


Until then, I’ll be here if you need me,

Michelle