Health & Wellbeing
Locked down alone
After over a year, we’re all familiar with the struggles of working parents. Little kids running into work meetings half naked, while co-workers smile patiently and mumble platitudes like “we’re all in the same boat”. But what if you’re living alone?
BY DAPHNE VLACHOJANNIS
Some boats are empty save for a sole captain who is realising that sailing out to sea alone sounded much more romantic that it is. The reality is it can be lonely. And it can be quiet–too quiet. Alone in lockdown
PHOTO: EWIEN VAN BERGEIJK-KWANT
“My daughter and I now bake our own bread.” “I taught my kids all about geography.” “We have a new family board game tradition.” But what about those of us who don’t have kids? What about those of us who don’t live with a partner or even a pet? Or don’t even have plants because before the lockdown, our apartments were basically a place we showered and slept and on occasion ate but certainly never cooked? What about those of us who have spent the better part of the past year only really interacting with people on Zoom? And those people are colleagues. It can often seem that society has focused on the challenges of working parents of young children, all but forgetting about those facing a very different set of challenges. Recently arrived
“I moved here on the first of November for a new job, and knew no one here,” shares one international. “The lockdown has been very complicated for me. It’s very difficult to meet anyone, and months after moving, I still don’t know anyone here.” » ACCESS | SPRING-SUMMER 2021 | 35