What’s most important to you right now? 

My family and my family’s health, both physical and mental. I’ve been trying to check in with everyone as much as possible. 

What was most important to you before you had to social distance? 

I’m a freelancer, so I was always hustling to find more work, do more, and be in different places. That’s slowed down a lot.

What’s the first thing you’ll do when this is over? 

Arrange a trip home to Texas to see my family. We thought about leaving Brooklyn and going to Texas, but right now everything is so in flux we don’t know what the best thing to do is.

What are you doing to pass the time? 

Trying to stay active in a New York apartment, which is not easy. I do a lot of online fitness classes. I’ve been reading and reorganizing everything. FaceTiming friends and family. I joined a Zoom book club. I’m just trying to stay busy. 

What makes you happy right now?

Staying active. That does away with a lot of anxiety and I get a little kick from it. I really enjoy cooking, so that’s also been a therapeutic thing to do.

What would you tell yourself two months ago with the knowledge you have today? 

Chill out and don’t try to really plan anything, and be okay with that. Right before this happened, we had signed a contract for a wedding venue. That’s a ways out, but when is life going to return to normal? We just don’t know. We don’t know what “normal” is going to look like in the future. I’m trying to accept that planning is sort of impossible right now.

Being in New York, you get a different perspective on everything that’s happening. I can see Brooklyn Hospital Center from where I’m sitting right now. I think being so close to that–walking home from the grocery store and seeing refrigerator trucks outside that act as mobile morgues–seeing the struggle and the toll that it’s taking around us gives you a perspective that I think people in other parts of the country may be missing right now. You see the damage and human toll it’s taking more.

Kayla A-Brooklyn

DAY 42