A Little Life

As mentioned in my June update, I left DC to spend a few weeks in North Carolina with my family. Ordinarily, a trip down to Raleigh means packing in visits to favorite cafes and bookstores and seeing as many friends as possible, but this time it was nearly the complete opposite. I saw few people aside from my family, and whatever visits I did make to local businesses were for to-go orders only.

In the middle of my time in Raleigh, my sister and I drove to Louisville, KY to visit our brother. While there, we took as many precautions as we could to distance ourselves from others and stay safe, and opted for spending the days in nature - Mammoth Cave National Park and Hoosier National Forest - rather than in the city. Traveling isn't the best choice right now, but it felt good to see family and spend time in new geography.

Through the extended time away from DC (and seeing people other than my roommate), I gained a clearer perspective on the habits I've formed over these last few months at home. While I was careful to maintain good pre-COVID habits like working out daily and sticking to certain work + sleep hours, I fell into a more restrictive mindset with other things. I tend towards organization and minimalism, but when left unchecked, these values can become the goal rather than the means to goals. Getting out of my own space for a few weeks helped disrupt those thought patterns, and I spent the rest of July purposefully choosing activities that took me out of my normal routine:

Spent a week screen-free in the evenings and completed a 1000 piece puzzle by myself
Had my hair cut by a professional for the first time in 7 years
Spent a morning walking around the Mall (I've lived in DC for nearly 3 years and can count on one hand the number of times I've visited the Mall by myself)
Visited a wetlands reserve
Made doughnuts from scratch with a friend (she did most of the work, I did the final few steps)
Participated in a virtual escape room with friends

If 2020 has taught us anything, it's that nothing is certain. Rather than setting expectations for August, I'll simply say: here's to valuing what's most important and learning new things, no matter what happens.