COVID-19 Quarantine Offered Unique Opportunity for Reflection and Discernment
Thomas Plante
Professor of Psychology
The COVID-19 pandemic, along with co-occurring extreme political divisiveness, racism, and other awful recent events, have made for stressful and rather apocalyptic times in the USA. So many people have died, have become very ill, have lost their jobs, and so forth. However, I have been grateful to be able to quarantine at home with my wife, Lori, and much of the time with my son, Zach. I am grateful SCU has helped in so many ways for us to work from home too. Finally, I am grateful that as a licensed and patient-facing health care professional that I’ve been able to get fully vaccinated by February 2021.
There have been many unexpected and perhaps unintended positive outcomes from the pandemic even given all of the death, illness, stress, and pain. We have all learned how to use Zoom and other digital methods to work from home. We have also had a great deal of time for reflection and discernment about our priorities and what really matters in life as well. It was easy to be distracted in our pre-pandemic life, perhaps taking a lot of things for granted. Quarantining for so long has made life priorities more clear that likely will continue to influence me long after the pandemic is over. I have come to appreciate so many things more deeply while at home for so long.
I hope that as we move past this difficult time we will all be kinder and gentler with each other, care for those in need, and find a way to hold onto the life lessons that COVID-19 has offered us.