2020 Resolutions Revamp: What a Pandemic Lockdown is Teaching me About Life

CAIRO - 5 April 2020: Watching a healing sunrise after climbing Mount Catherine, taking my parents to Taba, secretly planning a trip to Iceland to see the Northern Lights for my 35th birthday, and learning French were on top of my 2020's resolutions.

Supposedly, 2020 was going to be my year of relaunch, but alas has the world as we know it changed, perhaps forever!

Today I enter day 16 of quarantine and working from home as a precautionary measure to help flatten the curve of Covid-19, which is ravaging almost every country on the planet.

I've always known life works in unfathomable ways sometimes; I had to learn that the hard way.

Just when you think it's finally your turn to join "the others," those who have things figured out for themselves in terms of career, relationship, or life in general, it changes track and slaps you right in the face to remind you of how insignificant your control is.

However; there was always a lesson around the corner of this track changing; it did not always end where desired, but definitely where needed.

And this situation is no different.

We spend years dunning after a concept of what an urban working human being should be like; someone who is always busy doing something, not particularly out of love, probably out of a wrong conviction of pursuit. Yet that someone is always burned out, lonely, stuck, confused and in search of a meaning. Sounds familiar to me!

Then a pandemic breaks out.

And all of a sudden, I- the urban working human being- found myself confined with all my resolutions, daily stress, unanswered questions and unrealized wishes trying to survive.

Yet, despite the literal heartbreak I feel following the news everyday of people dying, coupled with the fear of the unknown awaiting, a strong clinging to life erupts. Life and death have always coincided and always will, and it's because of death, life is so precious.

So I guess 2020 is still a year of relaunch. It's an opportunity for those who will survive to reassess their lives and stop compromising and start the hard work of knowing themselves, of not settling for less than what they deserve, of challenging the predesigned convictions, and of avoiding procrastination so when the time comes, and it will come, pandemic or not, they shall be ready to perish with full hearts.

To be honest, it is a bit of a struggle for my mental health; I don't think I'll ever be the same if I were given a little bit more of life. Constantly worrying about the people I love has become the new source of daily stress. Nonetheless, this pandemic has all of us thinking about the one thing we all tend to forget, the bliss and miracle of being alive.

We all have been lamenting the loss of normalcy, wishing for a glimpse of our past lives, using all human survival tactics to pass day after another until this crisis is over.

Isolation has always been for the strong; it's where prophets, believers and intellectuals find their calling, and it's an opportunity for us now to assess our life journeys and set the new resolutions.

Some of these for me would be:

1- Survival – Never take a day for granted

2- Family - They are the true assets of life

3- Gratitude – We are on a journey with an expiry date, make it count

4-Kindness – Only kind people are allowed in my life. It applies to myself. At this point, a tender easy going companion who understands the hardship we have been through is what we all need right now. No room for drama.

5- Self discovery/love – Do what makes you happy. It's a long path but self love will get me through it

Finally, may all those who passed rest in eternal tranquility and peace, and may all those who will survive make the best of their lives. Stay strong.