With A Little Help From My Friends

This pandemic and quarantine situation has been incredibly inconvenient and isolating for sure, but 2020 wasn’t exactly the worst year for me personally so it’s like… eh. Things come and go. And I haven’t yet learned any life changing lessons from it all, but I did realize this: I have friends. Sure, I already knew I had friends but given how the last couple of years unfolded for me, I guess I was starting to think that I was just sort of… there for my friends. That it might not really make a difference if I wasn’t there. I think I got wrapped up in the idea that my friends didn’t think about me as much as I thought about them—probably because I tend to self isolate when something goes wrong. I almost never reach out to my friends when I need to and I thought that meant they don’t care about me. Definitely something I need to work on but last year made me realize that people do think about me, that they do include me in things without me asking them, that they’re just a text away if I’m feeling down. Haven’t gotten there quite yet—I’d still rather meme my way through a depressive episode than bug a friend but I’ve realized more and more than friends are there. Not just there in an abstract sense but there for each other. 

Another thing I realized was that art is the essence of what it means to be human. I already knew that; I’m a writer and I have friends who are writers and painters and musicians. I’ve surrounded myself with artists for years now but the pandemic has been such a prime example of people flocking to art for an escape. Not to be pretentious on main and quote Dead Poets Society, but there’s a moment in it when Robin Williams’ character says, “We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.” He’s talking about writing, but I think it’s applicable to all art. How many people binge watched countless shows when quarantine started? How many people distracted themselves with movies and video games? How many people can’t get through the day without listening to their favorite music? How many people threw themselves into creating something for the first time in a long time? The whole world was flipped upside down in a matter of months, but people’s reliance on art never faltered. 

On that note, read Vicious by V.E. Schwab and watch The Old Guard on Netflix. 

— Mackayleigh