How I Managed to Stay in the House for 48 Days Straight

It started out along the lines of, “You don’t need to go outside” (My dad said this).

Which proceeded with story after story about what the Corona Virus was, what the symptoms were, and how many people were dying from it. Social Distance became the new vocabulary words and social media became a hub of COVID-19 memes, celebrities and everyday people telling their friends and family to stay home.

As the COVID-19 cases continued to climb, I found every reason to stay home.

On the surface, it’s easy to stay in the house because my dad goes out to buy groceries. I think it was easier for me not to leave my house because my work moved online, I could sleep in more, I had more time to work on my businesses, I could try new recipes, I could watch TV too. I really had no reason to go outside. Many of us were scared. So many of us prayed, checked in on our friends, and tried to distract ourselves about the continuous news updates of the pandemic. To put it simply, I didn’t want to die.

I wasn’t too bothered about being in quarantine. I’m a homebody anyway. My goal is to work completely online through my businesses. So for me, it meant I had unlimited time to create content for my social media education business as well as my financial coach business.

My workload included creating YouTube videos, doing podcast interviews, going live on Facebook and Instagram to teach, and client calls.

My dad now asks me if I’m about to go live when he sees me fixing my scarf or fixing my face. He can tell now.

I’m even using Pinterest now, which is so fun! I finally understand how to use it. I create graphics, link them to a podcast episode, blog post, or YouTube video, then write a description, and post! It’s so fun!

Did I get bored? Surprisingly yes. Did I get depressed? Of course I did. No matter how many chances you have to do what you love to do, you get tired, you wonder if you’re doing it all for nothing. I experienced this last week. Maybe I’m suffering from burnout. I rested this weekend to regroup.

That is one thing I struggled with during this quarantine. Trying to stop myself from working myself into a hole. Once you start working on your passions, it gets addicting. The adrenaline excites you at the beginning. You love what you do and people love what you do. Eventually you crash. If you're not careful, this will cause you to drop projects for days on end. I often feel guilty when I don't finish projects when I expect to, but I know I also can't jeopardize my health. So it's a work-in-progress for me.

To de-stress, I have been watching my church livestream and singing.

I saw my friend singing on the singing app Smule and I decided to download it. I don't regret it. Being able to express myself through singing, has relieved a lot of stress. Some of my favorites are 'It Is Well', 'I Will Bless Thee Oh Lord', and 'It Ain't Over'. There's no judgement about singing and I've definitely been getting good practice in! My friend Elijah does not play when he sings so it challenges me to include runs and really feel the song!

Yesterday, May 3rd, I finally went outside after being cooped inside for 49 days. It did feel a little different.

The skies didn’t part. It was actually cloudy. But God definitely brought the sunshine. (Ah, did you catch the Clark Sisters reference?) Check out the video of my first day outside below!!!