Hello, happy Saturday.
How are you?
I remember in February 2020 watching the Super Bowl halftime show with performances by Shakira and Jennifer Lopez, then with the midnight zapping I understood the dimension of what was happening in Wuhan, China. I also remembered 2009, that fear of the risk of contracting H1N1 influenza. Then came March 2020 with the first 2 cases in Venezuela. The prayer, the anxiety, the psychological terror, the hot water, the mask, the antibacterial, the lemon tea, the mortality report and all the chaos that originated the spread of Covid-19 until the pandemic declaration.
What do I miss about the world before the pandemic?
- My energy.
I'm not sports-loving enough to have a weekly exercise schedule. But I am a level walker, I am not intimidated by distances. There was a period in Puerto Ordaz, a city located in the south of Venezuela, where I lived until 2020, that the social outbreak due to the internal political crisis, collapsed the city, there were barricades with traps everywhere, which affected the functioning of public transport. I had to walk to work day by day, a situation that lasted more than 4 months, it was a journey of more than 7 kilometers. I am talking about 14 kilometers a day. From this experience I got into the habit of walking, I was an errand-running machine and it saved me money on public transportation.
In the pandemic, with the confinement, I started to work from the computer. My conclusions during the first months: all were advantages, working from home, from your comfort, the work was over when the task was finished and not when an alarm went off. But the coin has two sides, I plunged into a sedentary life and commonly took painkillers to relieve muscle aches, migraines and fatigue, I gained weight and also my glucose and cholesterol levels went up.
I was not burning calories and all the energy was accumulating in my abdomen in the form of adipose tissue. Once in the vicious cycle of sitting, eating and sleeping. It was a bit difficult to educate my body to find a balance. As time went by, I started walking again, but I still haven't reached my ideal weight.
- The city.
Before 2020, I lived alone in a city that had a cultural agenda. Theater, concerts, movies, outdoor social activities and more entertainment. Me, I had an exciting social life, I am fascinated by artistic events, festivals of emerging talents, fashion shows, art exhibitions, reading dramatized texts and all those manifestations that give you reasons to take some pictures for Instagram and set up your profile as a socialite.
A fun time with friends from Puerto Ordaz who no longer live in Venezuela.
I returned to the city where I grew up, where the aforementioned entertainment ranged from little to none. That is, so much so that the closest thing to a proper event, was the end-of-year elementary school kids' prom. People in my city buy liquor and go to the plaza, open the suitcase of the car, put on music, mostly tropical: salsa, merengue, bachata and urban rhythms. He turns up the volume much louder than allowed by municipal laws. They tell stories that are difficult to listen to and understand why you can't talk with the music so loud. It's something I don't understand, it's a clash of noises that becomes sonic pollution. Those people, when uninhibited, dance and there is always the odd case of truth told to the face that ends in violence, then it's gossip to discuss in the offices on Monday morning.
Piar, the small town where I live as seen from the top of the hill.
Last year I went to spend some time in my old city, that is, Puerto Ordaz, but it was not the same, I was invaded by a feeling of emptiness, I felt the absence of the social circle with which I was related in those wonderful years, many emigrated to other countries looking for a better life.
Another thing I miss is my cunning to take a risk, before I had an impressive agility to live an adventure and get the adrenaline going, about 6 years ago I could take a backpack, leave everything and go to live in another country with very little money, perhaps, another would be the story, well says a popular phrase “There is no such thing”. Now I would not be able to do it, now I am an adult with my feet on the ground who builds bridges with firm foundations so that the margin of error is minimal. I don't know if this is a result of being infected with Covid-19, could it be yes? I have an aunt who says her depression is a side effect of the virus.
What is certain, is that the ability I had to be risk takers, after 2020, faded with the energy and ambition to want more.
I bid you farewell.
Thank you!
This is my participation in Memoir Monday #49: What Do You Miss About the Pre-Pandemic World?
Original by @ericvancewalton
Translated with DeepL.com
