Hey everyone, today I thought I would talk about my perspective of COVID-19, the lockdown, and the affect it’s had on my life. I live in the UK which at this moment has the highest death rate in Europe. I’m not worried about if I get the virus as I’m quite healthy and young but I’m very worried if one of my grandparents got it as they are both at least 70. We’ve been in lockdown for around 2 months now and by now I’ve gotten used to staying in the house all the time. I miss my girlfriend and work tons, but I have found ways to cope with it as well as making the most of this spare time. I will probably never get this much spare time ever again in my lifetime so I might as well try and make the most of it.

However, in March when lockdown first started I didn’t cope well at all. The news was announced that lockdown would start the night before my last shift, and it felt very surreal. We all knew lockdown was coming but I still felt strange that I wouldn’t be coming back to work for potentially months. When I clocked out at the end of my shift and cycled home as always, the roads were deserted, it was like a complete ghost town. For the first few weeks of lockdown, I had no idea what to do. I would play Minecraft all day every day and got very good at the hardcore mode which is where you have to restart the game if you die. However, I was honestly miserable and just wanted everything to be back to normal. I just wanted to see my girlfriend and go to work like Coronavirus never existed and I was under false hope that the lockdown would only last 3 weeks.

When I eventually got bored of Minecraft, I decided to try and get further ahead on my university work as I had nothing better to do. As I’m only on the first of many modules at the moment, I find the work easy, so I got ahead very quickly. I had to do my first big assignment which was lots of fun as well as studying more computer theory. By the start of May I had gotten to a stage where I cannot do any more work on my course until the end of May as I have to wait for the assignment deadline before I can study further topics. I was in a much better mood during this time but there was still one thing making me sad which was that I still couldn’t see Bobbie. I can call her or facetime her everyday which helps but its just not the same as actually being around her. Also, the reality was starting to set in that we would be spending our 1-year anniversary still in lockdown. We have made plans to order takeaway to the other persons house, guessing what they would want to eat and we will use a program called Netflix Party which allows us to watch a film at the same time on Netflix which I’m excited for. I would still rather see her in person though.

After finishing my course work at the start of May, I decided to finally get around to updating my website so that its actually good and not a pile of garbage. I made a plan on a word document to make sure I would go for a run each 2 days as well as working on my website for at least 2 hours a da until the 27th of march. So far I’ve made really good progress and I’m about to start a course learning JavaScript which allows you to make a more interactive website with buttons and animations. I decided to go for a blog because it allows me to get my thoughts and feelings out on the internet while also getting better at web development. It has kept me busy during lockdown, so it’s been lots of fun to create.

My final thoughts on this lockdown are that my mental health can change very rapidly. I can have a great day and then be miserable the next day. I’m just trying to make the most of lockdown and I’m trying to see it as an opportunity instead of something to complain about. I really miss my girlfriend, but I feel lucky that we live in an age where technology is amazing and allows us to call for hours each day. I hope you’re all staying safe, happy and health.

<3 Jordan