Dear COVID-19,
You have changed my life. It has been 2 months since I met my friends and family, sashayed down the streets and most importantly, danced my heart out in my studio. Now, I see my ballet students on screens but teaching them virtually simply does not have the same touch, literally. I miss seeing their faces, hearing their voices and their weird antics, which I used to complain about – I’m missing all of it (maybe not the part where they forget their dance steps).
When most of my friends started working from home before the circuit breaker, I joked that if I ever had to work from home, I would have to teleport my studio home and the impossibility of it all. Being the owner of a dance school, I spent up to 10 hours each day in the studio where I had free use for my own practice. Never have I had to dance at home. But now, confined within my 3sqm dance mat and substituting my bar table as my ballet barre, I teach and practise ballet at home.
You have locked me up in the house… with my boss. Unlike most people, I see my mum at home and at work. While we spend most of our day “together”, they are mostly mere interactions in a bustling studio. Being both confined at home now meant that we get to spend quality time with each other. Although there is a saying that “too much of a good thing can be a bad thing”. Truer words were never spoken.
My mum is a single parent, and I’m a single child. While we had our laughs and heartfelt talks during this period of confinement, her patience with me is wearing thin. Well, she threatened to throw me out of the house because I forgot to take out the trash last night. Thanks to you, her threats have no weight because there is nowhere I can be (without breaking the law). Being a digital dinosaur, I’m now her personal helpdesk when she needs help with downloading apps or recalling her Apple ID. The time at home has given me a chance to understand my mum a little more, a little better. Although I have to admit that I secretly enjoy an occasional home-alone moment when she is out getting groceries.
You have caused us a lot of sleepless nights, filled with worries about our business. While you have made virtual learning possible, I’m buried in administrative work which slowly kills my eyesight each day. But I have also discovered my culinary finesse, a newly found artistic flair that has turned me into a chef and bartender.
You have made me re-evaluate what is important in life. Amidst the disruption you have given to our lives, we were given a chance to hit pause, reflect and restart. Even the air feels fresher outside; the skies, clearer. Maybe, just maybe, you’re the world’s necessary evil.