Week 14 Entrepreneurship Journal

Through this whole semester, and this class, I have had this thought weighing on my mind: "Who am I to Become?" Who will I be, when I am old? What will I have done for those around me? How will I have made the world a better place? I don’t think that I have all the answers to those questions, but I do have a clearer sight of the path that I should follow to answer them.

Right now, the entire country is under quarantine restrictions. We can’t play at the park, we can’t browse through our favorite craft store, we can’t go to the library, we can’t even go to the thrift store! (this is actually a really hard one for me, I’m missing my cheap impulse buying!) My family had a cold through most of February of 2020, and then by the beginning of March states around the country began receiving Stay at Home orders from their local and state governments. I haven’t been to any type of social gathering for almost two months! But, we’re still staying home. My neighbor, my friend, even members of my family, are all defying the orders. They have a variety of reasons, most of them usually revolving around “I’m not afraid of getting sick, and nobody has the right to limit my freedom in any way for any reason!” My neighbor gets mad when I won’t let my kids play with hers. My family members swamp group messages with links to various conspiracy sites claiming to have proof that it’s all a hoax. And yet, we’re staying home.

Don’t get me wrong, this has been a significant inconvenience for my family. My ability to do my class work has suffered because I can’t have our baby sitters over, and I can’t go to the library, or do all of my little coping techniques that I had developed. But my family is getting stronger, my boys are playing together more nicely because they only have themselves to play with. They’ve started playing video games in the evening with my husband, bonding with him over things that he loves to do. We’ve bought containers to set up a garden at our house. Instead of fighting against it all, we’re accepting it and appreciating the opportunity to truly focus down on ourselves as a family.

What kind of person will I become? Right now, the kind of person who won’t put other lives at risk for her own pleasure and benefit. And I think that’s a pretty good person to be.