Spring has arrived. Or so, my friends from America told me. Where I live, Spring did not mean anything. That season only made sense to someone who experienced winter. The Philippines does not have a winter season. Plants and Trees do not die from the cold temperature that winter brings. Spring, which signaled the reanimation of the plants who died in winter, never made sense to us where I lived, because there was no death to begin with.
I loaded an additional five pounds to the weights that I lifted this morning. This meant that my bench press was five pounds heavier than what I did last week. This weight however, wase still twenty pounds lighter than what I used to lift before the lockdown. I felt that my physical strength had been reduced a great deal because, nowadays, I was mostl idle. I did not have to exert much effort because I now have to walk shorter distances most of them was just for my regular need to stand up from my desk to the kitchen to fill my cup with something to drink.
In the absence of the need to do a strenuous physical activity, I forced myself to exercise. I had to lift weights so as not to experience muscle atrophy.
Exerting a little bit of effort extended to establishing a practice to reach out for human connection. I was lucky because I still had a face to face connection through my parents because we were all staying in the same house. However, I had to exert a little bit more effort to connect with my friends and my family who were all in another city. I reminded myself to send a text, or make a phone call at regular intervals.
I wondered if I would end up being socially awkward on the first time that I could venture out in the world after this lock down is lifted.