When the shelter-in-place orders went into effect in many places around the country in March, the news was laden with reports sharing that many millennials were not taking the shelter-in-place Orders seriously. These orders, at least in Illinois, in short, states that everyone (with the exception of essential workers) is to stay home and only leave the house for any essential items. Before this Order was in effect, it was mainly recommended for people to practice social distancing, which suggests maintaining a distance of 6 feet away from any other person, practice thorough hand-washing techniques, and stay home if you felt under the weather. On April 28th, Illinois Governor Pritzker announced that the shelter-in-place order would now be extended until May 30, 2020, in Illinois. While the extension of the order has upset many people, the purpose of the Order is to try to flatten the curve of the coronavirus and to help stop the spread of this virus.
If you do not want to do something as simple as staying home for your own safety, do it to think about other’s wellbeing, such as your grandparents or parents. Although someone in their 20’s can become sick with COVID-19, our grandparents and parents are typically more susceptible and vulnerable to this. The “millennial” generation as a whole has been labeled as not being concerned enough about the severity of the virus which killing and infecting people each and every day. However, not all millennials have the assumed lackadaisical mentally about COVID-19; I am a millennial and to be frank, this pandemic scares the hell out of me.
During this time we have had to adapt to this lifestyle. Most of us are now working from home and for many of us, especially those millennials who are in their first professional job, this may have to be something else new to get used to. Having the mindset that this is something that can pave the way for potential permanent ways of working has helped me to be able to adjust better to working from home. My biggest tip for people is to stay positive. It is also important to be social distancing but not socially isolating, many of our family and friends are in similar positions.
Instead of feeling imprisoned, we should take a glass-half-full viewpoint; let’s be thankful that we have a bit of time to stop, relax at home, develop a hobby, catch up on lagging projects and while it is hard for some of us to be still, take the time to reflect and focus on staying in place. The more that the Order is taken seriously, the sooner that we can all get back to our formerly known as “normal” lives and hopefully enjoy the summer. There are many different things that we can be doing during this stay at home order – try things that you haven’t done before or those things that you have put off because you have been too busy to try. Some things that we can do during this time are to strive to stay connected with family and friends; this can include phone calls, Face Times, and Zoom calls. Staying connected with your loved ones is always important, especially during this stay in place order. You can also read that book that you have wanted to read now you finally have time to sit down and do so. Be active and stay active, go outside for a nice walk or run. Another thing to do is you can to binge-watch the TV show that you have wanted to watch or throw some headphones on and get lost in checking out new music.
There are many things that we can do during this stay in place order that can help us to finally have some time to relax from the busy-ness of our business lives. The way that we should ALL be thinking about this is not a “stay in place” but a “safe in place” arrangement so stop and listen.
Written by Lauren Kilmartin
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