A lot has been written or said about our state of mental well-being. Depression is still generally misunderstood in the country. It is often equated to being sad (as opposed to being unhappy) and not being able to cope with that sadness. In certain cases, the person might get blamed for not having an outlet or outlets for this 'sadness'. That tends to oversimplify or trivialize something that is much deeper and which requires much more attention than what it looks like to many.
Each one of us may have different ways to cope with the various feelings we experience. Those who have hobbies and other outlets might be giving these more time. Some may pick up a new hobby or more depending on the person's disposition and personality. These can be the simple ones like reading, drawing walking or biking (if allowed depending on the guidelines for outdoor activities). Others can be expensive like gardening (i.e., the plantita/plantito types) or sports biking.
Observing the behavior of my students helped me at least to try to understand what many of them might be feeling but that was when classes were face to face. During these times, it is really difficult to do the same. You cannot 'feel' for someone you are not physically in contact with. Virtual is basically impersonal unless you already know a person and can imagine the body language, how he/she thinks in a variety of situations, how he/she grew up and the environment around him/her. But people also change and a person you knew from 5 years ago may not be the same one now. Covid-19 certainly changed us. It practically changed the world and how we view life and survival. Sadly though, it does not seem enough to move people to act in order for certain officials to take responsibility for letting the pandemic linger, mutate and infect more as it is doing now. That also needs to change if most of us will survive this ordeal.
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