We are well on our way to completing six months of working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for social distancing. All of my team members can do their work from home and are doing an exceptional job, but for many of us, working with faculty and others in person is our juice, our inspiration, our preferred way of interaction.

I’m an introvert at my core, so working from home at first was advantageous. I could get so much work done, catch up on my reading, and felt really good. But lately, it’s starting to get to me. Sure, I go to campus for half-days most days of the week, but it’s just moving from one box to another. And most of the team is still working remotely full time. So I’m alone on campus too! We aren’t open for in person visits so we are still interacting with faculty online.

I feel like the walls are closing in.

So what am I doing to combat this feeling of aloneness? I’m trying to stay off of social media and trying to make real connections. Calling, FaceTiming or Zooming so I see my kids and grandkids faces. I’m taking time to work on my art and read. My husband and I took a kayaking class last Saturday and had a blast.

But I’m going to have to really pay attention to my moods and general mental and emotional well being to stay ahead of the depression. And maybe part of that is just digging in deep to how I’m feeling instead of trying to push past it. Acknowledge that this is really challenging and try to find ways to ameliorate the down times.

AND I can hardly wait for our vacation in one month. That will help so much! Keeping fingers crossed that the second wave doesn’t prevent us from taking that vacation.