TJ Smith Pandemic Journal 6 4-30-20

This has so far been a crazy ride! I’ve been in quarantine since March 11 th, so it’s been

51 days! I feel like I’ve never had to be this in touch with my emotions in my life! It’s interesting

spending all day everyday with yourself and your family and no one else. Especially when the

activities you do range from sitting in your room staring at the wall to going on a ¼ mile hike for

your 18th birthday (that’s really rare we don’t ever leave the house, I’m lucky there was no one

at the Hidden Falls hike in the morning that day because it was raining just before it got sunny).

The food we’ve been eating is completely different than usual, we’ve gone to such lengths as

buying our own deep fryer and attempting to make Chick-Fil-A nuggets from scratch (it worked

ok but definitely not perfect). I’m not sure I’ll ever crave pizza again after this quarantine due to

the fact that frozen pizzas of all sorts and sizes are the most convenient food source at my

house.

I will say that I have learned so much. Spiritually I feel like I have grown much closer to

God, and socially I feel like I’ve become much more adept at reaching out to people via

technology (I don’t have social media so that’s been tough), and physically I’m definitely out of

shape but I’m trying to do enough that I stay healthy even if I’m not super physically fit. I’m

learning to look completely outside of myself at others. My situation is completely out of my

control at this moment, but my attitude and my perspective are under my control. Focusing on

trying to make others happy and help them with everything they are feeling out of love for

them makes me so much happier. My family is doing well, and we’ve never been this close

before. All of us have tons of fun and we’re happy, and my younger siblings even consider this a

vacation instead of a quarantine, and honestly I’m beginning to agree with them (I’m pretty
TJ Smith Pandemic Journal 6 4-30-20

bummed about the meat shortage though, I love meat). This is a fulfilling and exciting ride I will

never forget.