March 2020 is a weird time to be alive. The world had gone into shock as this global pandemic has taken over everyone’s lives, everyone’ thoughts, and everyone’s actions. Not a day goes by where each person who is aware of the coronavirus does not think of it, and very few do not speak of it on a daily basis.

 

However, although coronavirus is what everyone is thinking of right now, this period of isolation is going to make the most wonderful difference you can imagine.

 

First of all, health will increase tremendously. The most obvious reason for this is that we are all washing and sanitizing our hands ten times more often than we did before. This is killing all of the bacteria we might usually have living on our hands throughout the day but will also clean them of other dirt that is not healthy for us to have on our skin or, more disgustingly, in our mouths. However, this isolation period also means that the only way a person can leave the house is to go grocery shopping or to go for a walk. It is strongly advised against that you go to work or school unless you are a keyworker or it is absolutely vital that your school cares for you instead of yourself or someone at home (please DO NOT use schools if you don’t need to; they are for absolute emergencies only). This means that many more people will be exercising outside, in the fresh air, and as the time moves on, the Sun will shine brighter (not literally but seemingly) and will provide more Vitamin D to those who go outside and breathe in the fresh air.

 

Another reason this extra home time is almost a blessing to our world is the decline of pollution that has already begun to happen in our atmosphere. Because people aren’t going to work and aren’t needing as much energy, less fossil fuels need to be burnt, therefore lowering the rate of greenhouse gases and pollution. This is making the Earth a greener place.

 

This is an awesome opportunity to learn a humungous amount about ourselves and the people around us. Ask yourself questions like “What am I wanting?” and “What am I doing with my time?” to discover who you truly are at your core and how you might improve your lifestyle choices during this time so that when we come out of this mess, you are a newly incredible person (not that you weren’t incredible before – just that you’ll be even more incredible if you use this time wisely). It is also an opportunity to find out what others like, dislike, want, need, miss, crave and loathe during this period. Take lots of time (because, for once, you’ve got it) to play games, talk, laugh and cry with loved ones, whether it be face to face with those in your house or over the phone or on FaceTime with those further away. Try to learn as much as you can about each other so that you can use it to better understand how to communicate and have fun together in the future, whether you think you’ve nailed that already or not.

 

Finally, this might be the time people finally realise that technology isn’t everything, and that it also can be. Twelve weeks pretty much stuck inside is going to seem long, and it’s going to get boring pretty quickly. Many people, especially those in their teen years, will spend the first week or two glued to their phones. However, this is soon going to get tedious. This is going to be the time when people find hobbies that will last them the rest of their lives. People will discover what they really love to do, other than scroll through Facebook and make TikToks. They will realise that if they spend all of their free time on their phones, tablets, laptops etc., they won’t be living life to it’s true potential, and this pandemic has been an awakening to many people that you can never know when your life is going to end. However, this isolation period may also be an awakening of a different kind. As you will be aware, millions of people will be working from home during this time, and many, many of those will be doing so from their computers. This may lead businesses and perhaps even schools to realise that working from home can be done easily and sufficiently enough that they can afford to have less people in the office and give people the time with the families they so rarely get (once they get over being sick of them because they’ve been stuck in one house of them for twelve weeks).

 

So, as you can see, this isolation period isn’t all that bad. In fact, it is something to be thankful for that we have been given this opportunity to reflect, change and look after ourselves, ready for a new beginning at the end of this global pandemic.