How have our habits changed this year?

Due to Corona, many of us have been effected in different ways. For example, gaining and losing habits. I can connect to this since I lost a habit that I’ve had since I was six years old. More on that later but for now, lets get into it.

First off, I’m going to go ahead with my cousins’ story. Around Late January, she developed a habit of wearing latex gloves everywhere. She would wear them for long hours and would only take them off to put on another pair. She said that she felt more secure and comforted by the gloves since she felt like her hands would be exposed to corona whenever she went outside. Noticing this, my uncle and auntie did everything they could to try and stop this habit. From hiding the box of gloves, taking the gloves off whenever they had the chance, to stopping buying the gloves in general. This didn’t work though as they realized my cousin wouldn’t go anywhere without gloves.

To their relief, she began to lose this habit around late April. My cousin explained that the gloves would cause her wrists to be red, irritated, and painful to move due to the gloves being so tight. Honestly, her habit was a bit over the top and strange. Listening to her story, I’m glad that she broke that habit of putting on gloves.

Secondly, we have my brother’s story. No, he didn’t drown his hands with hand sanitizer whenever he got home or anything like that. Actually, he avoided going outside. His habit was doing everything online. Ordering groceries, ordering stuff for his house, ordering stuff for his dog. You may be wondering,” What did he order for his dog?” That’s a very good question and I’ll tell you. A 6 ft. tall teddy bear and some cologne. Sadly, I wasn’t able to get a picture of those items since they were destroyed (The teddy bear got his head ripped off and the dog cologne smashed into pieces since the dog got too excited and threw the cologne off a table with his tail). According to my brother, he realized he was spending a lot of money on things he didn’t need (i.e the teddy bear and the cologne).

This all stems from one thing though. His asthma. He did everything virtually since he didn’t want to risk getting covid. He declined every offer to come over even though he was assured multiple times that everyone at my house got tested and came back negative.

Fast forward a couple of months and news breaks out that the vaccine was available to everyone. Best believe he was one of the first people to get it. After he received his second dose, he came over unexpectedly and all happy. He ended up sleeping over (he asked his neighbors to do him a favor and feed the dog) that night as he wanted to spend time with us and catch up. I’m glad that we can all be together as a family now.

Going back, the habit I lost was biting my nails. I stopped, as I didn’t know if I had any bad germs under or on my fingernails.

In conclusion, all of us have gained some habits and lost some habits (including me) along the way of living life in quarantine, whether they are extreme or not.