My Quarantine Story

I felt like gasping for air as I typed my password on the screen of my laptop.

Username : Macchiata
Password : ****_____

Before I could finish filling out the password, I clicked the logout button and proceeded to shutdown. My heart beat faster than it used to, my chest tightened and my mind raced. I plugged out my laptop’s battery and left the laptop on top of my study table, not wanting to touch it. I could not fathom what was going on with me. Four days had passed and I kept experiencing the same emotion whenever I was about to open my laptop.

Since the “quarantine” was officially imposed in my area, I felt like I was living in one of my nightmares. My recurrent dreams were mostly about surviving in apocalyptic society. Either it was because of a deadly virus, famine or simply robots overtaking the human race. In most of my dreams, I survived and played a decent role as a helper to people who needed shelter and guide them to the safe house or area.

Today, I am living in one of my nightmares. No. It’s not my own dream anymore but it's the global reality.

_{Taken 23rd March the last day I went to groceries that's far from my place.}

My quarantine story began as soon as I disconnect myself from the outside world. I was lucky to have been able stocking up 2 months worth of food and medication.Going outside these days are not safe anymore and I want to contribute in stopping the spread of COVID-19.

_{Alcohol wipes are off the shelves. 19 March 2020}

Before I stopped going outside entirely, I always felt a pang of apprehension. Mainly because I saw people swarming at my regular supermarket where it would normally be empty. I saw some shelves of products that used to be abundant were empty. I saw people were not keeping their distance, not wearing masks and coughing without closing their mouths. This situation intensely terrified me.

_{Taken 19 March before the govt imposes strict lockdown.}

I have known this COVID-19 since its first circulated around twitter. I consumed and digested memes that indicated the virus wouldn’t reach where I live. Even in February, I was still going out with my friends attending Chinese New Year in Chinatown and traveled with my mom. We already wore mask then but we didn't expected that it would ever reach us. But here we are, two positive cases alone in my area and several suspected cases with 2 deaths reported.

Before the local government enforced quarantine, my university had initiated study from home and closed down the university until an undetermined time. Several days later, the government made a similar move.

How have I been impacted by the COVID-19? To be honest not much when it comes to my daily life. My routine is mostly the same. Except I can not attend university to meet my thesis supervisor anymore. So amidst my boredom, panic, and not knowing how to digest the situation, I consumed the hysteria of COVID-19.

It took me a while to regain my sanity after swimming through bad news constantly.

Only for the past two days, I have been comfortable logging into my laptop again. In my attempt to convince things are going well, I wrote a summary about how Indonesia handles COVID-19 and in the process of gathering the information, there was a sense of panic that crept up to me. I managed to contain it and today, I am sharing how I spend my daily life during the quarantine.

As I have previously mentioned, there is not much difference in how I lead my routine and lifestyle. My morning routine consists of : Waking up early, checking messages, making my breakfast, doing laundry and dishes, online for a bit, sometimes watching anime with my boyfriend, writing a couple of paragraphs, reading news until 10 am, going to the terrace to soak up some sunlight, then making my lunch.

Usually, I ordered take away from Grabfood but since quarantined was strictly imposed, I cook at home. I have been sharing some of my recipes on Hive which you can take a look at and try since they are fairly easy with minimum equipment as well.

During this quarantine, I try to keep my immune system strong by regularly consuming multivitamins. It’s not different from what I used to do on a normal day. I am generally health conscious and I need vitamin to survive day to day. So, I try not to skip my multivitamins routine. My current stack are : Vitamin B complex, D3, zinc, magnesium, calcium, Vitamin C, piracetam, bacopa herb extract, vitamin B-12, Vitamin A and I get my L-theanine intake from green tea.

In the afternoon, I make coffee and start writing again. Sometimes I get to chat a little with my mom and some friends. I also fold my laundry and try to find new inspiration for my writing and my thesis. My afternoon is quite relaxing compared to my morning. Then, I also put on some relaxing music to turn off the noise in my head. I don’t do full meditation anymore but I find listening to relaxing music helps.

In the evening, I mostly spend my day catching up with my to-do list. Then, I try to clean my room and prepare for the next day, including my breakfast and lists of things I have to accomplish. My day is quite boring to be honest. I spend most of it online and exploring new knowledge by reading books from archive.org. I am mostly going to bed at around 11 or 12 PM after I finished tidying up and drinking my second cup of green or herb tea.

There’s really nothing special about my day during the “quarantine”. I am just trying to regain my sanity while navigating my way through the chaos that is thrown into me. I can only hope this pandemic is over soon and we can go back to our life. Even this is my normal life, I think there are others who need to go back out there. Shut-in lifestyle is not for everyone.

~ Mac