Quarantine during COVID-19 has impacted so many lives. We hear about the negatives on the news, social media in our conversations on the phone and, on rare occasions, in person. I want to talk about one of the positives of quarantine. A positive that you can also reap the benefits of.
We have time, time for fun, time with my wife, and most of all time for self-reflection. In the past year, I’ve had some major life changes; leaving my dream job, going back to school for my masters (Which I said I would never do), starting a nonprofit, and training and managing so many people at once.
Besides this year it seems like I have been shoved into this world’s rat race since I graduated high school. Always taking action and never having time to look closely at everything I am doing. Quarantine slowed life down. This was perfect because I realize something that I might’ve missed if I kept running at full speed. Almost all of the hobbies and interests that I have had post-high school have been career-focused. Heck, writing this blog post right now is so I can become a better writer and publish a book in the future.
Through some quality quarantine self-reflection I was able to think more about where I spend my time and here is where I want to spend time with you.
While I am passionate about working, managing business and the competitiveness of the world, I love living more. I was discussing this with my dad and friend Ned late one night in the garage (think small 2 door garage with an old pan head and a few other motorcycles). We were talking about the usual; politics, work, our wives.
In that conversation, I remembered a hobby I had in high school so I said to Ned, “I’ve been thinking I want to get back into hunting and traditional archery.”
He grinned through his thick red beard, “now you’re speaking my language!”
Ned is an avid hunter and for the past few years, he had become extremely intense with traditional archery. Within a week he had given me a few of his books, one of them being Life and Longbows by Nick Viau. I read through that book in a few short weeks. I actually forced myself to read it slowly so the adventure wouldn’t end in a day.
It was within those pages that I got inspired to modify this blog and take all the areas that I’ve been writing in google docs (from the fiction writing to the music reviews to my love-hate relationship with running) and put them online. I’m not doing this because I have something to say or an opinion to push, I’m doing this for the sake of enjoyment. One of you might also be going through quarantine and thinking about how much you work and how little you live. I hope to spark that desire to live in you.
So come out and play. Read these stories, follow my social media accounts, but don’t just consume this. Don’t let this become another Netflix feeding frenzy of entertainment. Get outside and breathe free air.