I’ve started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here.
Today’s tip is to see the upside in a difficult situation that helped you learn something.
I’m going to take a different tact here, not looking at a situation that was hard in the moment, but looking at the entire last quarter where the pandemic has interrupted my life and changed how I live.
I’ve learned a few things from this pandemic, but two stand out to me as things that I consider often as I go through life. They’ve helped me to make the best of the world.
First, one upside is that I cook more and we get the family together most every day. At least, the two kids that still live with me. Prior to this pandemic, we were often running to different events each night. If I wasn’t heading out, it was one of the kids. We’ve started to get back to the times when my kids were in elementary and middle school, spending more time together.
The second thing is I’ve been working on my Japanese on duolingo. I studied the language in college, but let it fall away. My middle son has been trying to learn, and I decided while I have less travel, less activities to occupy my time, I’ll spend some of the time brushing up on skills. I’m hoping to visit the country at some point, and this is some minor preparation.
For awhile I resisted tackling too many new projects during the pandemic, just trying to mentally cope with the world. As I’ve found that this is more of a new normal, at least for this year, I’ve started to change some habits, finding a positive note in the changes.