Okay weird flex, I know. But let me explain…
From what we’ve heard and seen, the first thing to come to mind when mentioning hotel quarantine is bad food, no fresh air, feeling trapped, getting fat and loosing your mind. My experience was not at all like this, except the no fresh air thing and may or may not have gained weight but that was in my control and I didn’t care anyway!
In one of my last blogs before leaving quarantine, I mentioned that I felt I was getting a little attached to the old hamster cage. I know it may be hard to understand but if you think about it, I was stuck in the same four walls for a FULL 14 days. THATS 336 HOURS! Even in your favourite of places like the beach, gym, your car, wherever! It will take you a very long time for you to accumulate that many hours in the same space. So good or bad, you’re going to have some sort of weird attachment to somewhere you’ve spent 336 hours in such a short period of time.
My quarantine experience
Or what I call The Quarantine Chronicles, was spent rearranging the furniture (a lot), learning about and creating websites, reading, writing, painting, drawing, giving what I think were some quality performances to the distant humans outside from my 37th floor window (for me to know and you to never found out) and eating while in the bathtub… more than I care to admit! I was very blessed with a really good menu which totally made up for the lack of fresh air from my sealed shut windows.
But this isn’t why I get nostalgia at random times every now and again. I still don’t really understand it but im trying to. It may have been the disconnection from reality and being completely taken care of without having any thought to it. So much that I was able to go on a full 3-day technology detox. It’s just not impossible to do it now but it sure as heck would be difficult. No security, no maps, no bank app, nada. I didn’t need any of that, so it was the perfect opportunity to experiment this and I loved every moment of it and would never take those 72hours back. Maybe that’s what I miss…
Or maybe it was the feeling of time sitting at a complete stillness… It seems as soon as I got out, everything has been full speed and full on. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy being out and the things I get to do and people I get see (gosh I really am making it sound like prison huh) but its a feeling I can’t really describe, you’d just have to experience it yourself. That stillness feeling makes you think nothing else really matters. I didn’t care what other people were doing, I didn’t care if people knew what I was doing, I wasn’t distracted and was able to do things that i’ve always wanted to do; I know I can do that now and I try to but its a lot harder with all the distractions, good and bad. Even something as small and ineffective as making a meal – I didn’t have to worry about that at all. I just stayed in my room and everything I needed would come to me. Heck, a nuclear bomb could have gone off and wiped the whole planet and I wouldn’t have even known about it!
Did it get lonely? I think it’s hard to feel lonely when you’re occupying all of your time. I’m sure if I just sat there watching tv or on my phone all day, I would. Its weird but I feel like the more time I spend on social media, the lonelier I feel. Then as soon as I’m off it and back to “the real world”, the feeling goes away. A big red flag for me, so I decided a couple years ago to limit my time on my phone and my world has changed since, but that’s a whole other conversation (or blog)… Maybe it’s time to book a cabin in the woods or something. Get back in touch with myself and try out that no distractions thing again…
Anyway, carry on.