Most of us have been in quarantine for more than 6 months now and I'm pretty sure our luxury of free time has made us realize a lot of things.

How has the pandemic changed you? Because for me, it has changed a huge part of my life. First of all, I learned how to value my family members. They've always been valuable to me but during quarantine, we spend most of our time together and it made me get to know them even more. The company I work in temporarily closed but even though I didn't have enough money, I still had fun with my family. We spend time learning new stuff like trying out new recipes to cook, watching movies, and cleaning our house together which we haven't done before the pandemic because we were busy with our own lives, especially me. I juggled both studies and work and I go out with friends every weekend. There were times when I only ever go home just to get a few hours of sleep so I haven't spent a lot of time with them. So even after the pandemic, I will make sure to allot a day or two to spend with my family.

Another thing I realized is how important it is to spend wisely. A time during the pandemic when being sick is a very high risk, it is important to set aside a good amount of money in case of an emergency. I've always been thrifty. I always budget my salary, paying the bills first before buying the stuff that I want for myself. But now, I learned to avoid buying stuff that are not important ( new clothes or shoes because I'm not going anywhere during the pandemic ) and which can be put off for later. This is a really good realization that can still be applied after the pandemic.

Lastly, I learned to take care of myself. As I said, I had a very busy life so I wasn't really able to take care of myself. I eat any food that I want, not considering if it's healthy or not. I stay up late at night doing school requirements. I had an average of 5 hours of sleep. This changed during the pandemic because even though I had a lot of Netflix shows to binge-watch, I still give myself plenty of time to sleep. I also make sure that I drink a lot of water each day. Aside from that, we mostly eat vegetables for our meals. We also drink ginger tea or lemon juice at times. I'm pretty sure my family members also realized the importance of a healthy body which I think is a very good thing for us.

The pandemic has been dangerous to all of us but it also made us realize some of the things that we took for granted before it happened. That being said, it made us re-evaluate our decisions in the past, the things that we should continue doing, and the things that we can do in the future to make us a better person.