Beathriz Souza takes a moment to appreciate her boyfriend during this difficult time
Relationships aren’t easy, especially in a pandemic. On our fourth year of being a couple, my boyfriend and I decided to do lockdown together. Throughout the world, other couples, married and unmarried made the same decision.
We were told to brace for a storm as several reports of divorces and break-ups were appearing on the news. In Britain, law firm Stewarts recorded a 122% increase in enquiries on divorce between July and October, compared with the same period in 2019.
In the US, there was a 34% rise in sales of basic divorce agreement, where 5 months married newlyweds made up 20% of the sales. The same can be seen in Sweden and China where ‘divorce from couples coming out of months-plus-long quarantines cannot be processed fast enough’.
The reports say the pandemic caused people to spend more time together, therefore more fights and unresolved problems became the main dish on the menu. When reading all of this, it made me wonder, is the same going to happen with us?
Connor and I had always spent a lot of time with each other. Whether in silence or doing something, just being in the same room with one another was enough for us.
But being stuck in the same house, with my mum, with no end in sight, was different.
We tried in the first few weeks to establish a routine but quickly became lazy and unsurprisingly bored. This was the time where my mum introduced my boyfriend to baking. It was amazing to see them working together with my mum sharing her passion with someone so special to me.
I was expecting tough times ahead, but they weren’t as striking as the pandemic made it out to be. Spending 3 months at home with my boyfriend was such a gift. We learned to be patient with each other. The need to understand that there are days were moods are low and leaving the other person alone for 5 minutes is okay.
In uncertain times, is important to go back to basics. And that is spending time understanding your loved ones. To open up and fix what has been needing fixing for a while.
It is not easy and tears are expected and encouraged but the reward is so amazing.
On lockdown 3, Connor and I are locking-down together again, and I just can’t wait to spend this time with him.
