7-16-20
Hello everyone. Try to stay positive please. Someone is looking to us for guidance and will model their behavior based on our behavior.
I got an e-mail today from Fuddrucker’s today that the location in Chula Vista is now permanently closed. I feel like I lost a best friend. Now I know their are most likely others open, but that was my Fuddrucker’s. We have already lost Soup Plantation as I had just started visiting in the past 14 months or so. So now I have lost two friends. I would not be surprised if this virus claims Hometown Buffet as next, or at the very least as we know it. We can get sad but like I did when I was a small child, we moved cities and I soon had new best friends. I am sure this will be the case and it may not be easy but I will embrace the change. I have to realize that I am only a small part of this World and I can let it pass me by or I can get with it.
My 8 year old spent a couple days with me this week and he was telling me about his best friend. He has not seen him in 4 months. Does not know where he lives or when if ever he will see him again. I see the two of them together in pictures taken at school. Memories….He is not thinking much about it, but when he does return to school if his friend is there they may have grown apart, but there will be other best friends. Maybe they will reunite and nothing will be different, but time will tell. As parents we can visit with our kids and help them adjust and encourage them to realize there will be new friends and experiences.
What about those kids that are maybe 13 or older and are entering their new teen age romance? This has to be a very confusing time for children with so much change. Maybe those kids don’t look to their parents like an 8 year old but we need to be comforting them. Probably is best to listen and try to be understanding and positive about the future.
If we have not realized it this is or is going to effect our mental health. I am sure there have been some suicides related to changes from this pandemic, and there will be more. My thought is to be the stronger person and embrace the change. I really believe that we are going to be wearing these masks until past Christmas. I hope I am wrong but it is better to prepare for that and be pleasantly surprised later.
Hang in there folks. We can only control what we can control. Find new hobbies, explore different things, be creative, but most of all be positive. In Springsteen’s Thunder Road, he ends with “This towns full of losers and I am pulling out of here to win” and we can keep our good mental health with a similar attitude. Having a positive view can be contagious. Spread this and not the virus. It is what we can control.