I haven’t been working since the third week of February. It’s been six weeks since I’ve been teaching actual students. We’ve had meetings and informal sessions at work, but I haven’t been back in the classroom to interact with any of my students. 

And to be honest, I don’t really miss it. I think I really am ready to move on from this job. Which means that I need to think about what I’m going to do for my next career. 

I thought I would be okay with just writing. However, it’s more difficult than I thought. At this point, I haven’t even blogging consistently because I had to take time off away from the computer. Every time I turned it on, my fingers automatically typed the news sites in the search bar. I would then spend hours devouring information on the dead and dying people affected by corona.

If this is what I would be doing in my second career, then I’m pretty much screwed because I can’t seem to create a consistent daily schedule.

But I do know that this whole situation is unprecedented. It’s naturally going to be difficult. At the very least, I’m re-assessing a lot of things in my life–and that’s good.

At this point, with emergency measures all over Japan, I’m scheduled to start work again from May 11. But I’m not sure if that’s really going to happen as numbers of infected patients increase in the bigger cities.

So what have I been doing all this time?

Nothing, really. I’ve been home watching TV. I didn’t even get to do any of the chores I wanted to do during my spring break. I also haven’t been reading anything that will stimulate my mind.

I think I know why, though. I’m burying my head in the sand, trying to avoid thinking about the bad stuff happening all over the world.

Recently, though, I’m slowly coming back. I’m feeling more inspired by life in general when I hear about good people out there still trying to help others and making the world a better place. It’s enough to lift me out of this funk.

So as a way of slowly getting back to a new normal, I’m going back to blogging again. I’m hoping for consistency at this point. It doesn’t matter if it’s deep or ground-breaking–as long as I produce something remotely coherent, I’m okay.

But I’m really focused on spending time with family and loved ones despite social distancing. Thank goodness for technology. We’ve been talking about serious stuff: what to do when something happens to one of us. Again, really heavy and depressing topics, but it’s good to have it out in the open, I guess.

As always, I’m grateful, for the fact that I still have a job despite all this. When things become normal enough to start our lessons , I have a place to return to and have some kind of income coming in.

Others have not been so lucky.

Since the January outbreak, here in Japan a lot of industries have been feeling the squeeze. Basically, the entire tourism industry has shut down. The medical industry is also in crisis. The education system that consists of public and private institutions, including ours, may lose half the year to this virus. Restaurants and entertainment sites have lost revenue since customers don’t come into the shops any more.

So far, though, hubby and I are doing okay financially. We both still have our jobs. Luckily, we’ve been good at saving for the last few years so there’s a healthy emergency stash to tap into in case any of us loses our jobs during this outbreak.

So despite all the problems, we have a lot to be grateful for.