By: Dr. MeShonya Wren-Coleman
Changing Our Narrative
It has been six months, seven days a week and 24 hours a day spent adjusting to the “new norm.” Most often I am up by 5 a.m. having devotion, waking up my nine-year-old daughter for school, getting myself dressed for work and making sure I haven’t forgotten anything before rushing out of the door to have my daughter at school by 7:10 a.m. Each morning I am also trying to beat rush hour traffic to be at my desk for work by 8 a.m. Now that was my life before March 16, 2020, which was also my nine-year-old daughter’s birthday and the day the world shut down because of the COVID-19 virus.
We had been watching the numbers go up for those infected by the virus and the death toll escalating just the same, but never did I think I would be home for six months with my 21-year-old daughter who was home from college along with my nine-year-old daughter who could no longer go to school. For the first time in nine years, I had never spent this much time at home, especially with my two daughters. Let’s just say, I am now well overdue for a vacation on a distant island.
Just to give you a little background about me, I am a 48-year-old married mom who works full time as a director at a local 4-year college, an active member in my sorority and college alumni association, a faithful and active member in the church, a caterer, an event planner, a public speaker and workshop facilitator. With all of these roles that I play, there is never enough time in the day and therefore, home was a place I spent very little time in until the rare weekend when there was no planned event to attend. My home was for sleeping and making sure my family had a meal prepared to eat but never was it a place I sat and enjoyed. So can you imagine how these six months, seven days a week, and 24 hours a day has shifted my life? Let’s just say the walls started to close in and there never seemed to be enough wine.
To begin, the first two weeks required me to do some major time management. I had to switch into third-grade teacher mode and provide lesson plans for my daughter daily. My one meal a week turned into three and four meals a week. Not only did I have a household to balance, but I am also a working mom. Programming my calendar to remind me of meetings and deadlines was not the issue. Making sure that I didn’t have extra MeShonya “Dr. MeMe” Wren-Coleman (2020) household entertainment as a distraction was the real challenge to overcome before I could begin working from 8 a.m.–5 p.m. each day.
By week five, I had everything down to a science. My mornings became the time that I used for devotion, cleaning and washing when I would usually be dropping my daughter off and beating rush hour traffic. I started experimenting with recipes so that I wouldn’t bore my family with the same meals. When June rolled around, I received a mixer for my birthday. That’s when my new hobby of baking kicked into high gear.
Even though this was my new norm, everything I found to do or chose to do within these months, days and weeks kept me grounded. Now my routine has changed to not rushing out of the door but taking more time to breathe and relax. If I had continued to allow the stress of my job and the reality of loved ones who were affected by COVID-19 to elevate my blood pressure, I was headed to being the next victim of having a stroke at a young age.
This “new norm” gave me the opportunity to re-evaluate my life and to see what all the day-to-day rushing was really about. Sure, this has been a scary time, but it has also been a transformational time. God granted me this time to relax and to find peace within Him. My days are now saturated with embracing Him in every minute of the day. If COVID-19 had never happened, this reflection and bond would have never taken place. Now I have chosen to replace this time with reflection on how I can better serve Him, my family and this country as my “new norm.” It’s my hope that once COVID-19 is written in history books that it will continue serving as a reminder to us all when those months, days, hours and minutes had no answers and no cures and how this “new norm” simply made us better.
