Essay on: How Covid-19 Changed Our Habits In Life

Everyday life is unique. COVID-19 is unique. The combination of the two creates thought where thought wouldn’t be placed on a consistent basis. The Invention of Everyday Life written by Rita Felski provides a contemplation for a simple topic. She writes “after all, everyday life simply is, indisputably: the essential, taken-for-granted continuum of mundane activities that frames our forays into more esoteric or exotic worlds.” The definition of everyday is rarely talked about but occurs… everyday. That is because the everyday is lived consciously through nonconscious ways. We don’t need to talk about it because it happens every day. Only when we don’t follow that same everyday plan or something dissimilar occurs we rate it based on our everyday. As Guy Debord notes everyday “is the measure of all things.” It's true! I never thought about what I did everyday until what I did everyday was taken away from me due to COVID-19. 

In this world of cultural productions, our everyday is filled with norms you're expected to do. They become so repetitive like tying your shoe. Our everyday must be filled with baseline symbols that form us as people. Feeling of home, habit and repetition fill those baseline symbols. When COVID-19 hit our thoughts turned to the one thing we never thought about, what is it that I do everyday? How can I develop this new lifestyle to feel the same? There would be days where you do a lot of similar things and you didn’t think about your everyday. Then there would be times where all you thought about was how am I handling this COVID-19 life. The need for something shined brighter.  

As a student-athlete (similar to a student with a job) you do just about the same thing everyday. You have your classes, workouts, practices, games, and times to do homework. Without much thought you get all of them done and pride yourself on your work ethic and how you're able to balance such a busy schedule. When the weekend comes you're able to physically get away from all the everyday chores but mentally you wander to what you could be getting done instead. Through all of this, there is a sense of comfort in the normalcy of a routine. It feels like home, this is what I wanted to do, I am doing it, and I like doing it. I may not be at home while doing it, but it feels like home, it is comforting, it is my everyday. That all changes once COVID-19 comes into play.

COVID-19 changed what I did everyday but also made me think about what I do everyday. I had to think about my plan for the day, forced myself to start morning routines, tried to create an environment that felt “normal” again. It’s a weird feeling to stop everything at a single moment and slowly start climbing your mental emotions to comforting well-being. I started thinking of home, my parents, and siblings. What I used to do when I wasn’t playing baseball, how I kept myself busy through my everyday. I could only remember how that everyday felt reassuring because I was home without a worry in the world. I started going on walks. It was a nice way to get out of the house, breathe fresh air, and create more uniformity in the days. Each walk was different but it brought the same open arms each time to my thoughts. I thought about what I was doing at the moment, what I was going to do later, and the next day. I thought about COVID-19 and how the world was in such a weird place. I thought about my life and how different it was without baseball, how quickly it can be over. I understood that I would need familiarity once my current everyday passes the torch to my future everyday. I discovered that my everyday must be filled with feelings of home and comfort. As Felski writes about home “it is central to the anthropomorphic organization of space in everyday life.” (Felski, 2000) Home is a key piece in creating a meaningful everyday. Through an outside release of walking, I was able to create an inside feeling of being home, which gave me comfort in my everyday. 

It’s not so much the thought of having to create new routines, it’s the feeling of being grounded so you can create more off of it. Everyday will go back to being “normal” everyday soon. COVID-19 turned the attention on self-thought, which made people think more about their lives. It hardly affected some, some got hit by a wak-eup call in many different fashions. I had the chance to learn what I needed for a “normal” everyday. I found myself searching for that awareness of amenity and exposed it by a stroll outside.