What if isolation is a chance to reconnect?

I am not the kind of person who could spend too much of her time at home. To feel complete, I need my friends, my family and spending time outside in the fresh air. These times are hard for everyone. I am sure that everybody misses having people around, going to the park, attend a wedding or throw parties.

We live in a time where being one meter from each other is seen as dangerous. People miss the human contact they gave for granted for their whole lives, and they start to understand the real meaning of solitude and loneliness. We were not ready for this, we didn’t plan it and now many of us are segregated in their homes, often away from their families and friends.

I was supposed to be in Israel right now. Maybe right now I would have been drinking a coffee with a friend, telling each other about the last few months we spent apart.

Or maybe I would be getting prepared for one of the several wedding receptions I was going to attend.

But I am not there. I am in London, in my brother’s flat, writing on my bed.

I am happy and lucky to have to chance of spending this quarantine with a member of my family; I am aware that this is not the case for many people, especially students studying abroad like me, who didn’t have the possibility to reunite with their parents in their home countries.

Many of them are alone in their flats and feel a strong need to have social contacts.

Luckily technology stands by our sides in satisfying this need.

Two weeks ago, when everything began here in England, I started using the app HouseParty.

This platform enables up to eight people to talk in a sort of virtual room and has additional features (i.e Trivial, Drawing games) that enrich its service.

The best characteristic of this App is that the rooms could be open, and they could be accessed by anyone who has at least one friend in the room.

This possibility made me reconnect with people I didn’t speak to in ages, people with whom, without this platform, I would probably never speak again.

Another convenient platform I use is Zoom. I use this App when the situation requires a proper reunion, a Shiur Torah or a Birthday party. A Zoom meeting can sustain up to 500 participants, and access to the meeting can be obtained through a WhatsApp or email link.

Thanks to Zoom I reconnected with High School friends and recreating these relationships gave me hope in this hard time.

I believe this unique moment can be used to discover ourselves and our relationships again and to stop procrastinating the time in which we will finally confront our own lives.

The time is now.