What I Gained During Quarantine... Not the Quarantine 15

Quarantine Kisses with my Husband

During the past few months as we’ve been hunkered down at home, we've been exposed to a "New Normal" and with this "New Normal" we've all had to make adjustments. We've given up many aspects of life that we took for granted before. For each one of us, what we've given up and the impact of what we had to give up have varied.

Looking back at what I've given up or what I've lost over the past few months, I have realized that the minor inconvenience of not being able to go to the gym, to visit friends, and the inability to travel to exotic or familiar places pale in comparison to what other folks have had to give up or what was taken from them.

I am lucky enough to still be fully employed, to have a comfortable home and roof over my head, to have a loving husband to share this experience with, to have family nearby, and to have my health.

For those who have lost their jobs, their income, their health, a member of their family or a friend to this disease or to anything else, please know that my thoughts are with you and if there is anything I can do for you during this trying time, I hope you will reach out and let me know.

For those of you who have had to postpone life's special celebrations, for those who have had to grieve alone, and for those who have missed being present for the moments in life we can't postpone, I am truly sorry that those moments have been forever altered for you.

While we have each been impacted in different ways, this quarantine, this "New Normal," might not be all bad. I've chosen to spend some time thinking about what I have gained rather than what I have lost during this unprecedented time. I'm choosing to spend this time as we start to see the certain parts of our society reopen to take a moment for gratitude rather than fixating on all the things that I haven't done or couldn't do over the past few months.

For me personally, I truly believe that I've fallen in love all over again during quarantine. My husband is a management consultant which means he spends most of his time traveling to his clients. This means he can be gone multiple days a week and often his schedule is unpredictable or at the mercy of airline and client schedules. Because of the stay-at-home orders, he has been "grounded" and at home for the past few months. I now get to wake up to his smile and fall asleep in his arms every night. I get the chance to tell him how my day was in person rather than on the phone or via FaceTime. We get the chance to cook dinner together, walk the dog together, and to unwind together in the evenings.

While many people take their time with their spouse for granted, the last time I got to spend this much quality time with my husband was over 4 years ago when we both weren't working and were in business school at the same time (before we were married). While I admit, that every moment hasn't been perfect and that we probably complain about being bored more often than we should, this time together has allowed us to reconnect and has been a shining light in the middle of the quarantine darkness.

I've also realized that quarantine has helped me gain a new appreciation for how much I value my family. My parents only live about 10 minutes away from me. As quarantine went into effect, we chose to socially distance even though my sister and her husband had come home from Seattle where they live to quarantine with my parents.

As quarantine turned from weeks to months, we relaxed a bit and allowed my sister and her husband to come over once a week for sibling dinner. My husband, Ben, and I started looking forward to these sibling dinners each week. Instead of taking our siblings for granted, we now plan exciting evenings together. Each weekend we support a different restaurant in the area by ordering in and playing board games or watching a movie together. We text more often throughout the week and our relationship continues to deepen and grow.

Now that Texas has started opening up, while we continue to practice social distancing, we have started doing even more family dinners with my parents and my sister and her husband. We are spending more time truly engaging with each other at the table. We listen better, we ask more questions, and we enjoy each other's company in way that we couldn’t when we took our time together for granted.

So yes, during quarantine, I've opened myself up to a wider range of TV Shows (I'm looking at you "Tiger King") and activities that I probably would never have entertained outside of these special circumstances such as video chat birthday parties , video brunches, video game nights, random puzzles, and whatever eBooks the public library has available, but more importantly, I've opened myself up to what matters most in life again - family and loved ones.

As I headed back into the office this week and had to take a step away from spending all day in the same environment as my husband -- and as my sister and her husband start to plan their return to Seattle -- I realize that quarantine isn't going to last forever. My sister and her husband will go back to their lives in Seattle, my husband will eventually take flight again, and I run the risk of reverting back to taking my family and loved ones for granted.

Quarantine helped me slow down, take a breath, and open myself up to the people that matter again. Now while the world opens up, I must remember not to quarantine my heart.