Has Covid/Lockdown Affected You? — Estelle Westley

How has the Covid-19 Pandemic and Lockdown affected our day by day lives.

I spoke to a few folk and there were mixed reactions but most had to adapt to extreme changes.

Not only do you have to wrap your mind around this new life that is forced onto you but you are still not sure if these new rules and regulations thrust on you are for your good or are they set to show power from those in authority.

There are rules that just do not make sense. Here is an example.

You may attend a Rage — In South Africa this is when thousands of students who have completed their last year at school descend on a coastal town for a week and let their hair down — but not more than one hundred people may attend a funeral. It does not make sense.

So lets start with the tiny people in our lives. When I spoke to a few about what school was like they answered that they were sad when they could not play close to their best friend. I felt sad with them.

Then I moved to the junior school children. They were worried that the online schooling, which at first seemed a great idea, was very challenging. Who was going to explain this new way of learning to them. They felt like they were being left behind in their studies. Their parents are not educated to educate them. Nor did they have the time. It was an overwhelming feeling for them.

The senior school students adapted better to online study but there were so many hitches with school bodies and exam timetables not being communicated, so some students had missed deadlines and will have to negotiate to rewrite exams. These students also felt overwhelmed. Not to mention their social lives which they felt has been taken away from them. There are no more outings to concerts or movies.

The entrepreneur does not know what his future hold. Where he once had a dream and knew that if he worked hard and diligent he could earn a good living, he now feels the ripple effect of loss of income of the lockdown period. His customer base has dwindled to half of what it was. The entrepreneur is overwhelmed. What does the future hold for him and his family.

The older generation has felt a great loneliness in this time. Normal get togethers with their friends are now a thing of the past and many spend weeks with no visits, no laughs, no family hugs. They are told they are most vulnerable to the pandemic so they lock themselves up in fear.

Our world at the moment does not make sense. It has become sad ,fearful, overwhelmed, devoid of hugs. This human race was not made to live in this state of mind but we must now look to the future and make a new future.

We need to know that we may never have our old lives back but we can look to living in a new way. Throughout the centuries man has always picked himself up and started again.

Be kind and gentle and overly generous in the time to come. Be loving and caring. People have to heal burdens such as health and lack of finance.

Why can’t we do it again. The New Year is here.

Originally published at https://estellewestley.com on December 11, 2020.