
A few weeks back we received formal recommendation, guideline, pressure, suggestion…whatever you want to call it to stay home to help “flatten the curve” during this pandemic. Depending on what part of the world, or country you are in, people took the direction in their own way and either met heavy or no resistance to their decisions.

Some went about doing their daily routines without any modification (ex. wearing masks, gloves or other PPE to reduce exposure), while others went all-in and wore every piece of equipment they can find to protect themselves and / or others around them.

There are definitely people on each side of the debate that will (tell) you why they did, or are doing what you see. However, while taking a side and trying to justify a position could be a provocative post, I’m not going to go down that path at this moment. There is something less controversial at play.
Exploring on your own time
This is probably obvious to most, but there are multitudes of things that you can potentially experience for the first time while relegated to sheltering in place. Those that have existing hobbies are somewhat lucky, because they can now dive deeper, or wider into their respective activities. There are others that have always wanted to try something new…I have colleagues trying to learn new languages, playing musical instruments, experimenting with painting, gardening when the weather permits, exercising or really anything new just to get away from watching 24 hour news, jumping on social media, or worse sitting in front of their laptops and PCs beyond the eight plus hours of work they already did for the day. However, if you have kids that are on social media, perhaps this is a good time to explore what they are doing on these platforms, get more engaged and informed. (Link Regarding Social Media Apps Kids are Using)
The reason I said “on your own time” above is that this may be the only time we have, we have been asked to stay put, don’t travel, incorporate social distancing and while most of us have and eventually will complain again “I just don’t have the time” – we now do. As they say hindsight is 20/20 and to look back a few months from now and wish we would have used this time to “explore” would be a shame. You’ll undoubtedly get direction on what to wear and how to act when you go to the grocery store, but deciding what to do when back at home is in your hands.