This time last year I was in the exact same position I am right now; looking out the window of my room at the construction site in front of my house, and calculating how long virtual school will take before I could begin to watch my fireman show. Yes, you read that right: a fireman show.
During quarantine some people took up baking, or playing an instrument; some (like my father) worked out at all hours of the day. I personally took to bingeing fireman show after firemen show. From Chicago Fire, to 9-1-1, to Station 19…
Maybe the shows were a way for me to watch situations in which people were way worse off than me. The shows follow the characters’ private lives, but all tend to place high emphasis on rescues, fires and other emergency situations. Watching a show that depicts some of the worst days of people’s lives puts certain things into perspective. After watching a person’s albeit fake house catch on fire, suddenly being at home with my AC blasting sifting through piles of virtual school work doesn’t seem so bad.
The dramatic (and obviously fictional) parts of the shows also piqued my interest, of course- after all, if I had absolutely no drama in my grade I could at least get fake firehouse drama, right? That, and let’s be honest, those firefighters are certainly good-looking, to say the least.
These shows provided a way to get me through the monotonous days of quarantine, a world where you could be less than two meters from a person without wearing a mask, and where teens, kids and adults got to hang out and make dumb mistakes that everybody makes in life. The shows gave me a sliver of “old normality” back in a time where such a situation felt impossibly far away, and that longing for the “old reality” is what has me hooked onto the shows even after quarantine is over.
My first few months back at school with all the COVID measures weren’t fun. The fear of possibly infecting my family, the general uncertainty, and the stress of starting the IB made me anxious to the point of running out of class in a panic and hyperventilating.
Cases of general anxiety and stress around teenagers have gone up around 45% since the pandemic began. An issue that was considered by 70% of teenagers to already be a prominent problem before the pandemic has almost doubled by now and is still increasing (Penn State Report).I am one of the people to have fallen into this category, and as much as the pandemic will end one day, the reality is that I’m probably going to have to learn how to manage my anxiety and stress. I’m going to have to accept that it won’t just disappear no matter how much I want it to.
I am still working on managing my anxiety, and some days are better than others, but when I feel at my worst there is still a sense of escape at turning on a fireman show. Of hearing the sirens pop up on the screen, and knowing that no matter the emergency, someone is on their way to help. In times of uncertainty a straightforward show is the best thing I could ask for.
The last year has forced me to grow up in ways that I might not have experienced if it hadn’t been for this situation. But if there was one thing that pandemic gave me was time to figure out what gave me the most peace, what helped me calm down and escape, and, as crazy as it seems, a warm cup of tea and a firefighter show how I disconnect and relax.