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Am I the Only One Who Enjoys Sheltering in Place?

I never liked P.E. either

Regina Rodríguez-Martin
4 min readMar 28, 2020

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I feel bad for everyone who has children, especially children under the age of 11. I’ve seen first-hand how impossible life has become for them.

That said, this sheltering-in-place lifestyle works for a few of us. I own my own remote business, so things haven’t changed as much for me as for others. I also hate sunshine, avoid going outside all year long, and have no interest in Chicago’s currently closed lakefront. I also dislike traveling and would be happy to never go anywhere again.

Am I the only one who feels this way? Probably. But I’m not the only one who feels surprisingly comfortable during this lockdown period. I facilitate a depression support group and we held our most recent meeting online. Many of us struggle with a generalized anxiety disorder as well as depression, so our members regularly go in and out of extreme anxiety and/or numbing depression and/or hopelessness and/or helplessness.

During our meeting, I said, “It’s like the whole world finally agrees with how I feel all the time!” Others said they felt the same way. It’s almost vindicating to have even the most optimistic people admit to feelings of fear and uncertainty. I feel like shouting to the non-depressed world population, “See? I knew we were doomed!”

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Regina Rodríguez-Martin
Regina Rodríguez-Martin

Written by Regina Rodríguez-Martin

Mexican American. Chicagoan. Generation X. Relishes questions of human behavior. Nobody’s mother and nobody’s wife. Blog: https://www.reginachicana.com.

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