I worked from home for 19 weeks. I was one of the luckier people who was able to make that transition easily. Being an auditor, it was almost as if my job was created to weather the pandemic.
We were used to flexible working. Traditionally auditors would work from client sites and so we would rarely work in our own offices anyway. Our laptops were built to be light and portable. It had an inbuilt 4G device that allowed us full time connectivity anywhere in Australia. We also had the technical capability and experience to communicate virtually, as most modern day companies often do.
What I didn't realize when I returned to an almost back to normal environment was that I'd grown accustomed to this routine. It was surprisingly comfortable for me to be in this odd 'limbo'. It felt like suddenly my life was on pause, the world was holding it's breath...
I had no pressure whatsoever to be aware of what my plans were to be in the next 10 years, or even what I was going to be doing that weekend. Nobody was asking or thinking about these kinds of questions anymore! We were all waiting for this chaos to blow over, sitting quietly with our families in our homes.
Being a quieter and more reserved person, I no longer had any reason to worry about social awkwardness, or uncomfortable conversations face to face. We simply communicated over email, and over Microsoft Teams. We didn't even have to turn on our cameras to show our faces! We could hide that kind of honesty from each other.
All my other regular activities outside of work were converted to zoom meetings. Church was held on zoom. Bible study on zoom. Gatherings with friends.
Since social isolation measures have been put in place - it became clear that we didn't even have to dress up or step outside of our house to go on with life.
~.~
When social distancing restrictions gradually started to relax, I realised that I did not want to go back to 'normal'. I did not want to become so hyper-aware of my life choices. I did not want to face difficult conversations. I did not want to commute to and fro between the suburbs and the city. The days felt longer and my imagination and thoughts grew wilder. I had more options now, which definitely did not feel like a good thing.
But of course this would be all futile in the end, and hiding under the blanket of the Coronavirus was sort of like tossing away a true privilege that other cities did not have. Furthermore, If one does not get uncomfortable, one can not grow.
I remember walking home a few weeks ago from where the bus had dropped me. It had been a long and tiring day after a series of other long and tiring days. My mind had been plagued with doubts and worries and dread for a while now at that point and I was ready to go straight home, wash up and go to bed. We were in the thick of Spring. The suns rays were already rapidly overtaking the days as the days went by. It felt as if a veil was gently lifted from my eyes at that point. I realised how pretty the sky was and how lucky I was to be able to simply walk home and be comfortable enough to use a public transport system without even needing to wear a mask. All this while I had been feeling resentment and dread when it should really be quite the opposite.
In my personal and humble opinion, Perth, Western Australia offers some of the most glorious sunsets in the world. This was a photo I took a couple years ago when I was walking around the neighborhood near my house.
No comments:
Post a Comment