I used to have a framed card hanging in my bathroom when I was a student at the law faculty. It was a Samuel Beckett quote that said: “When you're in the shit up to your neck, there's nothing left to do but sing.” I know the irony of hanging it in my bathroom! It was a friendly reminder of no matter how tough things can get: you can always choose what to do. Now that I’m older than the girl that hung up that quote 20 years ago, I can say that I learned the meaning of freedom to choose and always having options. Because no matter how bad a situation is, you can always choose how you want to confront it. How you want to handle it. I believe, in the end, that’s where mental health lies. You can cry about it, complain about it, dwell on it for as long as you’d like or you can, well, sing!

I never would have thought that I’d experience a global pandemic. The pandemic definitely changed the world, geo-politically, economically but mostly it changed people’s view on many things. It showed us how frail health is, how there are no certainties in life, no matter how much we try to control things in our lives. It showed us, that in matter of seconds, our lives can be put upside down and change and with this, it has brought along many insecurities. And I feel that some may never recover from this or at least most won’t ever be the same anymore, For instance, I used to be so “anal” when it came to travelling, to booking flights, to organizing everything. I feel like now, I am a different person. I barely make plans, barely book hotels or apartments, I’m super chill about it, just going with the flow. Why? Because I may never even get to my destination, because that was my reality for almost two years. But I deliberately chose to deal with it this way.

As Esther Perel once said “choice is not the same as freedom. Freedom is actually the ability to make a choice in the middle of restrictions.” And that freedom is always yours. No matter what. You will always have the freedom to choose how you want to deal with a given situation. You can cry or you can sing.

Ultimately, it’s up to you!