What is Fear Like During the Corona Spread?

Fear can be interpreted in many ways and forms, when we were kids, for example, we were afraid of clowns or even a toy. Fear develops based on our environment, how our parents raise us to be brave or to be scared, and life in itself. There is no ultimate bravery, in my opinion, there is always fear within us and it can escalate based on our encounters and experiences in life.  

It will find a way to scare you no matter how brave you try to be and it is a challenge because at the end of the day, human beings are fragile and a sense of fear exists no matter how hard we try to hide it.  

I lived a normal life until war knocked on my country's door suddenly and it did not give us time to react or even think. I remember the sound of the first NATO jet that took place in 2011 and the sound of the first missile dropping somewhere in Tripoli. I was only 17 at that time and I had to be brave but I was really scared because I didn't know what to do, I had to face the reality and just act as if everything was fine when life was about to change for me and many other people in Libya.  

This was my first memory fear because of war which does not mean that I don't have many other memories of war back home. That the future and the reality will change, however, I found a way to remain positive ever since the country has been going through a turmoil and it became our reality in a sense and people found many coping mechanisms. Many things have happened in the past 10 years or so. I am older now; I am no longer that teenager. However, stress and anxiety became part of me and I never thought I would experience them but this is a side effect of fear and I believe it comes with the package.   

The situation changed me in many ways but I never thought life will test me even harder and put me through a time where there is an epidemic in the world and our lives are changing because of it. I never thought that I will be living in such a time where we are self-isolated and especially isolated away from my family and home. The ultimate solo isolation. It is only me in my tiny studio in Paris.  

For me, it has been 18 days of quarantine so far and the degree of the unknown is increasing and this virus developed a greater sense of fear, I'd say a different one. I never thought that I was not going to have normal human interaction at all. That I wasn't going to hug my friends at least as I cannot hug my family since I am away from home. Now, there is this fear of going outside and simply move around like I used to do.  

The fear of touching any surface outside the house. I am extra cautious when I leave my room to take the trash out, who knew that such a simple task would become scary today? The fear of being close to any other human being, social relations will change greatly because of this virus. Basically, the fear of our daily routine. It will take us time to get back to our routine. I wonder if we will hug each other like we used to? Or even shake hands? It turns out that the fear of the unknown is the scariest feeling one can go through. I hope that this ends sooner than later but the lessons we will learn from it are different from any other lesson we learned in life.