It’s 12:06 am, and I finally sit down to write this while watching ABC’s 9-1-1. I am not sure where to start except to say that we decided to batten down the hatches on our household like we did in 2020. Ever since the election, we have noticed a shift in our household, and we found ourselves retreating back to the solitary life we had during the pandemic when isolation was at the core of our lives.
We got a lot done during that time. I spent the majority of that time reading, cooking, and applying what I was learning when I wasn’t working or homeschooling the teen, who was a pre-teen at the time. We find ourselves missing that time when we revoked access to our lives out of caution and safety from the coronavirus. Only this time, though, we find ourselves with the sudden urge to revoke access to our lives from the world—or most of the country—while we process the outcome of this election.
This shift has already had an impact on our lives as we find ourselves wanting to head straight home after heading out, whether it’s to the gym or the store. We find ourselves not wanting to be around people for our own peace of mind, even though we still do make time for those that we absolutely see as a must and delight to have contact with—for example, my former advisor, who has been a great person for us to have around, and some familiar faces we see at the gym.
Other than that, it’s mainly hi’s and bye’s and polite banter with people in passing until we are behind closed doors, back in our home, where we are finding solace once more in shutting ourselves off from the world while figuring out what is to come next for our lives.
The teen wanted to start a certain business, but now, with the looming threat of greater tariffs, we aren’t sure if it will be a smart move. However, we also aren’t ones to give up right away and will consider our options.
We further reduced our spending, and for the first time, we stuck to some pretty decent budgets this month. There were only two times when we went grocery shopping without a budget. I find myself wanting to give less money to the world and keep it all to myself, like Scrooge, and for the first time, I don’t see this as a bad thing now that the election is over and we know what will come in terms of the absurdity over the next four years.
It wasn’t a coincidence that most of the life-changing gains came from those years in isolation during the pandemic. I see no reason to not embrace these times now in the way that I see fit for the future of my household. Revoking access in more than one area will pay off in the long run, just like it did during those years.
During the pandemic, way less money was spent when we had no desire to be out in public. Again, the only difference this time is that we just don’t want to be around other people right now in this climate. I get the feeling that this is another major shift for our household that we won’t understand the magnitude of until years later when we see the payoff right in front of us.
Meanwhile, I start my last quarter of community college in January before graduating and will be on campus twice a week. I will have to adjust to that during this period. However, I get the feeling it won’t bother me a decent amount.
If we are going to do this long term and be intentional about the company we keep, we will have to get used to being around people in some form of capacity without granting full-on access to ourselves. As some people say, I am not here to make friends; I am just here to do the work. Friends that happen to break through that barrier often are the ones worth keeping around, I noticed over the years.
But more often than not, I find that most of the people we cross paths with in the world are only there for that one reason or purpose. It’s better not to confuse that with thinking that someone is meant to be in your life forever or in other ways.
Some of the consequences I have seen online with this election are the dissolution of friendships and relationships. I can say I haven’t had to cut anyone out of my life in a long time and don’t find myself needing to now. I do have people around me who aren’t as self-aware and tend to be tone-deaf in their scope of awareness. But this is more about me setting boundaries with them rather than cutting them off over differences.
I learned long ago that sharing values, morals, and beliefs is important to me. Not saying that everyone around me thinks exactly the same, but I do know we all voted the same, for example, for what we think would have been the greater good for this country and for those we care about. At the same time, we have differences in wealth and other areas of life.
Some of the people around me couldn’t care less about money or building wealth. Others think you should do more purposeful things with your life, like teaching others or doing good work that makes a difference. These are more about personal beliefs rather than indifference to others. However, at the core of our beliefs that we share in common is that you should do what makes you happy as long as you aren’t intentionally harming another human being, like stealing, cheating, or throwing someone to the sharks to get ahead.
This leads to our shared morals. I think this is also why we don’t mind revoking access to ourselves over the next four years, as we have the kind of people that we want in our lives around us. It’s easier when you aren’t looking to make friends with people who don’t view the world with morals, or morals that strongly matter to you.
I don’t waste time trying to convince someone to change their 80-year-old beliefs, just like I don’t waste time trying to educate someone whose mind is already made up about something. Understand that there are people who truly believe things that are wrong as right. That no amount of education, peer-reviewed studies, or charts can change their mind. You have to be okay with letting people live out their lives that way and be okay with either revoking access or granting those kinds of people access if you can’t live without them.
As I said in another post, I am at this time in my life where someone can tell me the sky is green, and I will just nod my head. What good will it do me to try and convince them otherwise when all tangible proof has been granted to them to change their mind? It would be a waste of my time and a headache to boot. I would rather spend my energy creating an environment that I and my loved ones want to be in.
As I also said, this time in our lives is most likely the next life-changing shift that is going to drastically change our future for the better. And the people that we do meet along the way and decide to grant access to will only enhance and add to it, not dim and subtract.
The Broke College Student 
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