Every night I decide I’m not going to write about this, yet every night the coronavirus continues taking over my thoughts. No matter how much I try to distract myself, it always comes up. With every time I refresh my newsfeed. With the unprecedented visibility of hand sanitizers everywhere. With my inability to shake hands with or hug the people I come across. With everyone’s plans getting screwed. It’s everywhere and so I find myself writing about it again.

Today, I heard the news about Egypt cancelling all flights from and to the country, followed by several others. And for a minute there, it kind of felt suffocating. I did not have travel plans anyway, but the thought of people being so forcefully separated from their loved ones, as well as the potential impact all this has on the businesses of the world, kind of got to me. I don’t think we’ve ever really realized how much of a blessing it is for the world to be such an open place. Where we so freely get to travel from one country to the other (visa issues aside), and where every area has something to offer the rest of the world in exchange for something else, which somehow keeps us all connected.

This thought of suddenly having every country literally close its door and isolate itself from the rest of the world, feels paralyzing. Even if it should be for a short period. It still is paralyzing as of this very moment.

And with the number of deaths increasing by the day, I try to remind myself none of them are only just ‘numbers’, they’re actual human beings. They’re everything to those whose lives they’ve touched before they go. They took up space, and now they no longer do. They’re more than just numbers. They’re people with stories. Ones I really wish they got the chance to tell before they had to leave.

March 17, 2020