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Staying In Control Amidst the Coronavirus Crisis

Do you feel scared amidst the primary and secondary effects that the Coronavirus is having on your everyday life? Are you scared about how your life’s future will turn out? I want to share a story of mine about when I was the most scared of my entire life and what I learned from it, among other military school experiences.

I looked up at the rappel tower in disbelief. It was the height of a four-story building. It took seemingly hundreds of stairs to get to the top. My flimsy, skinny, pale eighth-grade body shook with anxiety. I had already avoided having to do the climbing wall, and I wasn’t looking forward to repelling off of the wooden, slippery side.

“Next!” I heard shouted from the top of the tower.

An upperclassman hollered my name. “Get over here, Chauff!”

I walked up the stairs with my head down as slow as possible, thinking of ways I could get out of jumping from the top with only gloves, a helmet, a harness, and a rope.

I got to the top and was hooked up to a wire. No way out now. I did not remember this being in my student contract for going to military school, a place where I sought a better education and a structured environment to get into a good college. A retired Drill Sergeant yanked my harness, clipped me into a rope drooped over the edge of the wall, and told me to stand on the edge of the wall and lean back.

Grabbing the wire above me with all my strength, I clumsily put my feet on the edge of the wall and shimmied my butt over the drop. My mind would not let my body lean back. A signal was given for me to drop down. I hesitated. I told the drill sergeant that I didn’t want to go down.

“Nah, son! You goin 'down!”

It was at that moment when my body was pushed off of the edge of the wall and into the 100-foot abyss, that I was the most scared in my entire life. For those extended two seconds I thought my life was over. Done.

But then the rope tightened. I was hanging from my harness and rope. The Drill Sergeant said, “Push your legs against the wall and jump!” I pushed my legs against the wall, leveled my body, and jumped, releasing the rope as my body parted with the wall so I could dropdown. It was one of the most amazing feelings of my life. I flew down the rest of the wall and my feet hit the pebbles on the ground.

The upperclassmen were laughing, “Nice work, Chauff.”

So what happened in this scenario? I feared that I had lost control. The moment my body lost touch of the tower, I freaked out. That’s what many of us do. Whenever we lose control in our lives, we freak out. That is why I believe that fundamentally the absence of control causes most people to panic and become depressed because it is at this moment that we are forced to function in the unexpected and unknown.

The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that around 16.2 million US adults have had at least one “depressive episode” in 2016. It is very alarming that almost 7 percent of the United States population enters a depressed state on a yearly basis.

During the unprecedented Covid19 crisis, it seems that more people than ever before will be stuck in their houses, unable to work and socialize (except virtually). This could have startling consequences. With such a breakdown of our daily routines, it may be extremely hard to maintain the feeling that you are in control of your life.

Let me tell you something - there are people out there that are taking advantage of the situation and gaining traction in their life’s work. Use this time to maintain control of your emotions. Don’t be the unprepared eighth-grader who was thrown off the tower into a quick uncontrollable fall because he didn’t take control.

That situation was the beginning of when I took control of my mind, my thoughts, and my emotions. My stimulus was to be in control.

What is being in control you may ask? Being in control is having the ability to choose what your next steps, thoughts, and actions will be. Being in control of your life is not going through the motions of a 24 hour day but actually making every moment of your existence stand for a purpose, allowing you to keep on stepping towards your goals. It is knowing exactly how you will act, think, and what you will do for the next 24 hours, 7 days, 4 weeks, and even 12 months of your life.

After falling down the tower and conquering numerous setbacks and obstacles in high school, I have found the following things to be the most helpful in establishing a sense of control in my day, life, and future.

Attacking the Morning

I start by attacking the morning with a checklist of how I acted poorly the day before, what things I want to accomplish that day, and three MUST DO’s for the day. For example, I’m not going to swear at my brother, I’m going to clean my room right when I wake up, and I’m going to have a more positive attitude about my work. We’re always concerned about getting free time in our day. CARVE OUT THAT FREETIME. I’ve learned that I can TRULY enjoy hours of free time after 12p.m. if I tackle my work in the morning. This leaves me with energy to get up the next day and do it again.

Amidst this crisis, we need to pull ourselves together individually, put our legs up on the wall of uncertainty, and jump.