Well, first: I've divorced last summer and I've been struggling to build up a start of a social life. Also I'm extremely depressed and yet I had two things that I held on to: tango and painting classes. For the first time in ten years - with the exception of a three month trip to India - I've been without tango for more than a week. Painting classes were cancelled until further notice.

In Belgium, we are allowed to leave the house for physical excercise though. For me that means walking and ironically, the social distancing guidelines have given me more social contact than ever. In general, people I meet - except when in supermarkets where many still think hoarding is in order - are more friendly and many engage in a three minutes chat from a safe distance. I've never really had a problem with smalltalk but my utter lack of self-esteem makes it extremely hard to reach out to people so even while I know I can be funny, empathic etc., I hardly ever meet new people. For now that has become easier. But I'm not really optimistic: once things are going back to normal, the friendliness will wear off and my anxiety will re-emerge.

For a few weeks, I guess we all know in the back of our minds - although it has not been made official - that all summer festivals will be cancelled. For me that means that I will not have two major jazz festivals to go to (usually, it is a lot easier for me to engage in a conversation there) and I won't be dancing outside of my usual bubble. Moreover, I was kind of counting on the painting classes to be a starting point for a new social circle. I know some people there are into jazz and Indian classical music as well, but with everything cancelled (at least) until the end of the month (my guess is, we will not meet again before the summer has passed since this is not an essential activity), I see the potention of building up a peer-group any time soon jeopardized.

For now, I'm doing quite fine but once more people start working again, I'm afraid I'll gradually become more isolated. And I am quite worried about the summer ...