Take advantage of time!

Hi guys! Hope you are all well. I thought that now that pretty much all of us are in quarantine, it would be a great chance to talk about relationships and how to maintain them over long distances. I want to make sure this is not just for romantic partners, but friends, family members, and even those who you are not very close with. Even though quarantine sucks most of the time, there are so many good things about it too. I bet a lot of people want to kill me after reading that sentence, so I better explain myself. The time we have now is a chance to make really strong bonds with people and get to know them deeply. When we go out and see a friend, roughly 60 to 80% of the conversation is related to something we have done lately for example “arg I have such a hangover yesterday was so lit” or “did you watch the football match yesterday?”. However, what if the person you're talking to is deeply depressed?, we're not likely to notice it through these basic conversations. Throughout these years (nearly 19 now, which are not that many) I have realised that nearly everybody has or has had issues and knows how to put a mask on them. Issues do not define us. But the way we deal with them does. Sometimes we deal with issues in the correct manner, which is an amazing feeling when it does happen. On the other hand, the ones that consume our minds are usually the ones we dealt with or are dealing with in the wrong way. These issues are the ones that we are usually most embarrassed by, so we instantaneously block them out of any possible conversation and pray for the topic not to come up. Nevertheless, we have to remember that WE ARE HUMAN BEINGS AND WE MAKE MISTAKES! We should not be embarrassed about what is in our heads whether that is about the past, present, or future. What I am trying to say is that in quarantine, we aren’t allowed to do very exciting things that we used to enjoy, but we can try to make people comfortable in order for them to open up. Who knows? They might even show you the 'embarrassing' path which helped them become the person who they are right now! Obviously, you can not force people to talk about this if they don’t want to, but if they feel comfortable around you,they're much more likely to open up about personal issues. As long as you don't annoy them, people will realise that they are important to you, and will potentially share stories that you would have never imagined. Finally, I wanted to say that opening yourself up will not do any harm to you but make your ideas clearer. It does not make weird, vulnerable, or an attention seeker but a strong, big-hearted person.