Originally I had another post planned for today, but I decided against posting it in favor of something more on the wain of what’s going currently going on in the world. Honestly, I had never intended to really touch on the current events of the world because I wanted this blog to remain a place full of motivation, magic, and fun. But right now I don’t feel that’s honest to what I’m feeling and what the world is feeling.

Right now, I’m feeling depressed, disconnected, and isolated, and I know a lot of other people are feeling the same way. With everything being closed, being cancelled, and having to social distance, it’s hard for a lot of people. As someone who struggles with their mental health, this is hitting me a lot harder than I thought it would. I’m used to being alone and self-isolating from the world. When I lived with my parents and was at my worst, it got to a point where I didn’t leave the house unless I needed to buy food and even then, sometimes I would just give my mom the money to go shopping for me. So choosing to be alone and away from everyone is nothing new to me.

But this is something completely different. It’s one thing to choose to be alone and away from everyone, but it’s another thing to be told you have to stay away from everyone for your health and theirs. It’s one thing to sit in your room and not be a part of the world, but it’s something completely different when you have to sit in your room and not be a part of the world because the world is a more dangerous place than usual. It’s even harder when everyone you know and love is states away. My parents and my best friends are in Pennsylvania. A childhood friend that I’ve known for more than half my life is in Colorado. I have family in California. I have a friend in New York who is an essential worker. I have friends in other states as well and it’s scary not always knowing what’s going on with them. Truth be told, I tried to be above this whole situation, tell myself it was nothing to worry about and that the media is just fear-mongering and over-exaggerating… Maybe there is still a little bit of truth to that, but I can’t pretend it’s not something to worry about anymore.

But what I’ve realized most with this situation is that staying connected to those we love and care for is what we need the most. We need to depend on our loved ones now more than anyone else. Our government won’t be the ones making us smile or laugh at our lowest moments, our friends and families will be the ones doing that. If anything should bad should happen to us, it will be our friends and family who worry and mourn us, not the government. We need to depend on each other right now in a way we’ve never had to before.

So right now, staying connected is more important than ever, especially for the elderly and those who suffer from mental illness. We need to be there for each other however we can. I called my parents the other day and talking to my dad helped. Later that day my mom sent me two videos of my cat and she was trying to get him to talk to me (but he didn’t feel like talking). I’ve been playing Animal Crossing with friends. My second graduate class started this week and I attended the Thursday night class even though I didn’t need to so I could be connected to people. Some of my gaming friends from Pennsylvania have started gaming online and I’ll be playing with them tonight. The point I’m trying to make is that we need to stay connected because staying connected is how we’ll get through this. We may have to stay isolated in our homes and stay six feet apart when we’re out, but it doesn’t mean we can’t game with our friends online, FaceTime our loved ones, or find other ways to stay connected. This is the time to connect. We need to connect.

Like I said above, this wasn’t my originally planned post, but I felt I needed to get this off my chest because I know I’m not handling this situation well anymore and some days have become a lot harder than others. So everyone, please do what you can to stay connected with your loved ones and others. Even just writing a comment on someone’s blog post could really help them. Sending someone a funny meme or YouTube video could help make their day feel less lonely. And check on people often. Make sure they’re doing as well as they can and if they aren’t, listen to them, talk to them, try to cheer them up. Please just don’t let anyone go through this situation alone because we’re all going through it and it’s all impacting us somehow.

So those are my thoughts. Sorry this isn’t following with my usual content as of late, but I just wanted to speak up about things. My next post will be something more fitted to the theme of this blog. But stay strong, stay safe, stay healthy, ans stay connected everyone!