Living in the Moment

 Weekends constitute a moderate portion of an individual's social life. From club hopping to Sunday brunches, there are a variety of plans that people make to catch up with friends, family and the rest of their social circles. Friday night planning turns to midnight tripping with your girlfriends and bottles with very questionable content, and sometimes they change and end up in watching sunrises in the arms of someone unexpected. These plans in turn, lead to the making of memories, which in today's modern society calls for posting our weekend photo dump and dance reels to pop music on social media. Documenting our memories on public platforms has become the new norm, even when our weekends may be restricted to a single day due to the nature of one's' profession. But does our presence or lack of, in this particular display of our lives make us reserved individuals or dare I say it, boring?

2020 was a year that made history. When people could not instagram their outfits for the night and the restaurants they visited, they posted about their sourdough starters and dalgona coffee. Movie premiers at theatres became movie nights with zoom meets, and sharing one's gaming experience through live streams became the new form of sporting entertainment. But so many people went off the grid, some taking a social hiatus to wind down on focus on themselves and rebuilding their lives,many people struggling during these difficult times and others just... simply existing.

I didn't make baked goods or have zoom parties. I did not grow plants in the garden or redecorate my house. I didn't even post a single picture or status on any social platform in the eight months . People started calling after five months of complete isolation, worried about my health. And sure times were hard, some worse than others, but cutting myself off from others gave me perspective about what I really needed, and that was to just in the moment.

I listened to so many people everyday through my discovery of podcasts, learning that it's okay to be wearing the same ratty and slightly disgusting pair of butterfly pajamas for an entire week as long as my head is clear and my heart is filled with a sense of calm. I watched enough nature documentaries to know that sea turtles are one of the most peaceful and hardworking animals in the sea. I rediscovered my love of embroidery, and possibly worsen my already terrible sitting posture with the amount of pillow covers I constantly worked on. I also learned that my biggest critic is my inner devil running marathons in my mind, forcing me to re evaluate my ambitions and decisions.

 I'm sorry if I have become an unapologetic bore who has taken advantage of social distancing to revert back to my shell. I'm sorry that I left this blog and left my story incomplete. But I was just working on  the most important chapter of my life: Me. It's a work in progress, and I can't say that it's finished, the first draft is done and I'm ready to share it with the world again. So bear with me as I work at a snail's pace to work with Annie and post some new embarrassing and interesting snippets of my adventures. See you soon.

Yours truly,

Maya