My Dear Friend Rona

Grafík/Margrét Aðalheiður Önnu-Þorgeirsdóttir

I won’t lie, I was not happy to hear that this issue will be all about you. I mean, everything is about you nowadays. The news, conversations with strangers, conversations with friends, phone calls with grandma, every other email. You are everywhere. These days, I can’t even talk ten minutes with my dearest friends without you barging in. You are in every conversation. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. And now I am writing a whole article about you, while I very much would have loved to write about so many other things. So, here I am, trying, suppressing the urge to constantly roll my eyes. But you know what? I will take this chance to finally speak my mind about you!

Please don’t get me wrong, I get it. I fully understand that you have had a great impact on all our lives. Because of you, everyone had to stay at home. We couldn’t see our loved ones anymore. No friends. No family. No travel. No celebrations. Not to mention the mental pressure and the loneliness all of us constantly suffer from. Some of us have lost our jobs, some are suffering severe health issues because of you. You even killed some of us.

This is why we talk so much about you. You messed up our plans, our lives, some of our relationships. It is not because we like you or do not have anything else to talk about. Don't you dare think that. Rona, I guess, you could easily get the impression that we are growing fond of you. Now we even have this nickname for you, like you’re some close friend of ours. But I can assure you, we are not even close to becoming friends.

Oh, I know what you’re thinking now: There she goes again blaming me for all her misery. I do not. I just hate how much space you are taking up in our lives. The mental and emotional capacity I need to handle your daily shit; I could use it so much better! I could talk with my friends about what is really important to them and moves them in these challenging times. I could spend some quality time with my family, even if it is just over the phone. I could take the time and reach out to people in my community and listen to their stories. I could reconnect to people I have lost contact with. Or I could just take the time to pause and take care of myself.

Maybe you are right, after all. Enough is enough. As it seems that you do not intend to leave us alone soon, I will take things into my own hands from now on. I will create spaces that you cannot access. Mental as well as actual rooms that are reserved only for people and things I actually care about. I will stop you from dominating everything and pay more attention to balancing my conversations. Of course, we will still talk about you eventually, and I will listen to the concerns of people around me. But accepting that right now we simply can’t change a thing about you, I will make goddamn sure that we are not wasting our precious time and energy on you any more. And please keep in mind, it is all of us versus you. So, eventually, we will win. 

So, please, go fuck yourself, Rona!

Cheers, xxx