It's Jackie Smiles

The caption says it all really…

Being confined to my home for the past 60+ days has really given me the time to sit and reflect on my life and what I thought was normal and how I’m going to cope with the inevitable “new normal” that’s on the horizon.

I can admit that I took all the little things that brought joy to my everyday life for granted. Going to the movies, swimming at the beach, eating ramen at restaurants, getting Starbucks, hugging my friends, kissing cute boys. All that seems like an entirely different life to me in this moment. Looking back, I feel like I was merely existing and not living. I was going about life day-to-day and not really enjoying the present. I wasn’t appreciating the simplicity and the joy the little things gave me. To have them all stripped so suddenly and becoming isolated was one of the biggest wake-up calls I’ve experienced in my life so far.

Scrolling through Twitter during the beginning of the quarantine and seeing the positive impact the world was having due to everyone being inside, such as cleaner water and air, animals returning to places they’ve been avoiding for many years due to pollution and tourism. It was all so overwhelmingly wonderful because, on one hand, the earth is healing itself, it’s taking a much-needed breather and repairing what we’ve been failing to do for so long. On the other hand, it makes us take a good hard look at ourselves and realize that we are the problem, and we should have been doing way more to help heal the environment.

The way we live impacts our surroundings, I can’t even begin to tell you how watching people litter aggravates me. It’s not difficult to hold your trash until you find a trash can. I live in Miami and our beautiful beaches are constantly covered in plastic waste, glass bottles and cigarette butts. it’s disgusting. It makes me so sad to think that some of that trash makes it’s way to our oceans and harms the wildlife. So many creatures are on the brink of extinction or maybe even already gone, all because people didn’t dispose of their waste properly. It just upsets me, we need to do better.

As things start to slowly open back up we should make it a priority to live better and cleaner lives. Be grateful for the life you have and do your part in caring about others and the future. It’s not hard to pick up trash and throw it away. It’s the civilized thing to do.

Besides picking up trash and being an example to others by disposing of your trash properly, if you’re still not too sure how to start living a cleaner, greener life, you could start by replacing plastic water bottles in your home with a reusable one. Start small and work your way up. It can be an overwhelming change in lifestyle so pace yourself, any progress is good progress.

The “new normal” is going to take some getting used to, hopefully they come up with a vaccine soon but being in isolation has really opened my eyes to what’s really important. Not taking love and time for granted. If you love someone share that love with them, tell them how much you appreciate their presence in your life. Give them hugs as often as you can, kiss them every chance you get. You don’t know what tomorrow brings, one day they could be gone or you could be separated for a long period of time and always look back and regret not taking the chances you wish you would’ve taken. Don’t take time for granted either, you might be young and think you have all the time in the world, but you don’t. Life is short and fleeting, do what inspires you TODAY. Don’t wait, your time could be stripped away from you and the next thing you realize is you’re stuck at home with a mandatory order for the next three or so months.

Hopefully with the time you spent at home you’ve accomplished many tasks and aspirations you were putting on hold. Picked up a hobby or two and have yourself a mandatory reset. Think about how you can improve as you’re reintroduced to society, what can you contribute to make this world a better place to live for not only you but everyone else.

That’s all for now, stay hopeful, and keep smiling.