People actually do this for fun?
Leaving my house is in the top three things I stopped doing since the pandemic began, almost five years ago.
Back then, I enjoyed every second I spent cozy and warm indoors, since all of my obligations happened outside; coming home felt like a reward and often like relief, as if I were a soldier who had to run across the battlefield and, by some miracle, managed to make it back to the trench.
Coming home meant resting and saying goodbye to a productive day.
In 2020, being at home became the new obligation; going out for pleasure was seen from a morally questionable perspective because if you did, you put everyone around you at risk. There was a pandemic out there, one that was taking the lives of dozens, hundreds, sometimes thousands of people every single day across the world.
For me, a true introvert, working from home was a blessing I’m still not ready to let go of. The problem was that being home literally became my new normal. By the time we were allowed to go out again, I no longer had any pressing reason to do so. So I simply stopped going out.
Then the daily stress and work overload started to change my habits. I stopped exercising, and eating became something I did more out of instinct. Sometimes I would fast for more than 16 hours, other times I spent the whole day eating. Did I need something for my house? That’s what online shopping is for. Going out became something special like seeing my family, a date with my partner, or buying something I couldn’t order online. My hobbies didn’t require the outside world. If I didn’t know what to do or felt bored, there was always work waiting.
Going out to see the sun, or interacting with others face to face, became something abnormal for me. Until just a few months ago, when I started taking walks in the evenings after work.
It was striking to see how many people were out there enjoying themselves; some running, others playing sports, others doing calisthenics, many more biking, skateboarding, or rollerblading. “People actually do this because it’s fun,” was my first thought. And it is. I’ve had fun, and on top of that I’ve been feeling wonderful exercising while breathing fresh air by the sea.
Working from home has many benefits, but when it turns into a comfort zone, you pay for it with a sedentary lifestyle, and that has had a very negative impact on several aspects of my life.
I feel like this is the first step in leaving behind a comfort zone I’ve been in since the pandemic began, one I have enjoyed deeply, but my body, my mind, and my soul are all telling me it’s time to recover that fighting spirit that once pushed me to earn all those privileges that allowed me to press pause for so long.