Opinion

Pause the whole world, reboot your own life

In 2020, the world has been paused all of a suden, silent but turbulent at the same time. The virus has messed with the whole world. In the early stages, everybody was expecting that life could be resumed quickly after the pandemic ended. However, as society has begun to recover partially, the old rules of survival and once-familiar lifestyles do not seem to work anymore.

Income & Wealth

A common question recently has been: “If you don’t resume work, how long can your money last?”

Many people do not know how to answer.

This pandemic has evolved from an initial health crisis, into a later social crisis, and then into today’s economic crisis.

Business owners have gone from being concerned about reduced revenue for a few months to wondering how to cover fixed costs in the longer term. Individuals have gone from losing bonuses and accepting forced salary cuts, to the fear of being laid off.

Everyone is in danger.

However, the pandemic situation in many countries is still intensifying. In the context of economic globalization, though various industries may likely resume work one after another, it will be difficult to improve the economic environment of the entire society in a short time.

The whole society is still in a mess. No one seems to care about your difficulties, nor can you hold them accountable for what they might owe you. All you can do is find ways to generate income for yourself and manage your wealth. At this moment, you can only rely on yourself.

You might even ask yourself, “Would my life actually be better even without this pandemic?”

“Revenge consumption”

In mid-February, I heard a lot of people saying, “After the pandemic, I want to crazily shop, eat, and enjoy life.”

In early March, I started to hear, “It turns out that it doesn’t matter if I don’t have a cup of coffee every day.”

Many “experts” have commented that the pandemic will generate “revenge consumption” because our consumption desires have been suppressed for such a long time, they will explode when the pandemic is over. However, as the pandemic timeline grows longer, for some of us our consumption desires are not accumulating, but disappearing, as more and more people are realizing that we don’t actually need so many things.

Whether it’s a renunciation of consumerism, or just a lack of desire to participate in it, our lives don’t seem to have become so bad after all. Instead, we have cleaned out a lot of clothes that we no longer wear; we have learned how to cook homemade dishes, and enjoyed spending more time at home, alone or with our loved ones.

In this pandemic, from the failure to see an emergence of “revenge consumption” to instead a decline in “consumption values”, people have gradually been reminded of what the most important things in life really are.

Dance Partners or a Solo Show?

The pandemic has tested a lot of relationships, whether there is love or not, whether there are common hobbies and topics to talk about, and whether rough patches can be smoothed out. Suddenly, all these problems can be seen more clearly when we are trapped together in limited spaces that we cannot escape from.

As the pandemic lockdown reached one month, there was a hot topic on the Internet: “If the pandemic does not end soon, I am going to get a divorce.”

Many people were complaining:

My husband is at home, but the only thing he does everyday is command me to do things.”

“We are arguing every day, over every little thing.”

“We were sitting next to each other on the couch, but we were just playing on our phones.”

On the other hand, some friends were also sharing:

“My boyfriend watched TV dramas with me and even discussed the story with me.”

“My husband was busy in the kitchen for hours today and prepared a romantic candlelit dinner for me.”

“We sat together reading books. We looked up and our eyes met. I felt at ease and very secure at that moment.”

This pandemic stopped us suddenly in our tracks and calmed our lives down. For some, the abundant amount of free time has allowed them to review their relationships in an objetive and calm manner.

So, does the person in your life invite you for a couple’s dance, or leave you as a one-man show?

******

The pandemic has invaded quietly. It has taken many human lives mercilessly, and interrupted our daily lives cruelly. It has pressed a pause button on our social processes, however, in a way, it is actually more like a fast forward button. We thought that we would only encounter many of these problems later in life, but instead they appeared suddenly, taking many of us by surprise. We were caught unprepared. We were anxious, worried, angry and helpless.

However, when we calmed down, we began to think, communicate, cooperate, and take action. Although the pandemic has broken many of our old plans, it has also inspired many new ideas. We have learnt to re-examine our choices in life, and once again estimated the value of everything.

We have begun to sit down and have long conversations with our partners, carefully listening to each other’s joys and sorrows; we have begun to understand the nagging of our parents and cherish our time together; to appreciate our kid’s desires and expectations, and to spend time with them; we have begun to realize our career ceilings, and decided to go back to school and study again; we have begun to pay attention to our bodies and health, and actively participate in sports and exercise; and we have begun to understand the meaning of life, to make decisions and start over.

When the play button is pressed on the whole world again, I believe that we will be ready for a new story line in our lives.

 

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