Day 79: Sequestered by the Sea

Day 79: June 13, 2020
Global Cases: 7,875,929 Deaths: 432,519
Egypt Cases: 42,980 Deaths: 1,484

Khaled Salah El-Din
Psychology Alumnus

NORTH COAST – I wake up at 10:30am to the faint sound of my phone vibrating. It’s my best friend sending me a Tweet that he found funny just like we do every day. The sunlight is shining in through a small crack in the window, just enough to light up the room.  

I walk to the terrace of my one story chalet. The weather is beautiful. There is this slight chill in the air that makes me hopeful about the day to come.

I make breakfast, a cup of coffee in hand, and put on my morning playlist Daydreamin’. A carefully curated playlist that I have built up over the past two years. It is a mix of artists/songs that I’ve come to associate with certain days or moments. This trip down memory lane puts things into perspective for me: Yes, it’s bad now, but look at all those good moments you’ve had over the years.  

I’ve been getting into curating playlists on Spotify based on mood these days. Quarantine has a way of inspiring hobbies like that. As the music plays in the background, I have a faint view of the sea. 

All these shades of blue have a way of calming me down, the ebb and flow of the waves remind me to slow down and breathe. The view makes everything OK again, even if briefly.

Being quarantined away from Cairo has done wonders for my anxiety. Things like simply taking a walk every day with my brother just talking about life have a way of making me forget the crushing nature of the daily news cycle and the uncertainty that comes with what we’re living in right now.

For The Caravan‘s previous diary entries in Arabic and English go to our COVID-19 Special Coverage page. 

I open my email to see if there are any updates regarding the Fall 2020 semester and I find nothing. Waiting and ambiguity seem to be a way of life these days. 

I open Twitter to see what’s going on today. My eyes quickly go to the top stories of the day, and I wonder, “Damn 2020 really is that year isn’t it?”.

So much is happening at once, and at some point, you feel like there might not be a foreseeable end to all the chaos anytime soon.

Some days I feel like I want to delete social media apps and some days I feel like I should stay informed and educate myself. I am in a constant struggle between prioritizing my mental health and staying in the loop.

I have been using my phone less and less these days. I only use it to reply to messages or to post a story or two on Instagram. Lately, I have been using that time to further educate myself on the pervasiveness of racism in our world. I’ve been signing petitions, looking up articles, making donations, and downloading books to make sure I am more aware generally.

Checking our privilege is no longer something that we can do, it is something that we must do.