GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — As we know by now, being forced to stay home isn’t a lot of fun. There’s boredom, there’s monotony, and there’s loneliness.
“It is hard,” admits Drew Feustel. “There’s places you want to be or should be and you can’t go.”
But while it’s an unprecedented situation for many of us it is not for the Michigan native.
“At first, it didn’t seem unusual that we were in isolation,” he explains. “This is something that we train for and I feel like we are normalized to.”
Feustel’s experience with isolation was much different than what is being asked of Michigan residents right now. He wasn’t stuck at home -- he was far from it.
“I lived on the space station for 197 days in 2018,” Feustel said. Now having been above the earth for that long, the 54-year-old NASA astronaut picked up a thing or two about living on it during these unique times.
Being in isolation isn’t easy but there are ways to make it more bearable. “Staying focused and setting goals are really critical for us, (as astronauts)” Feustel said.
And Feustel said goals can be critical for you too. Learn a new skill, create a project around the home, and don’t forget to stay active.
“Exercise is away to escape, you know release some endorphins in your body, get your muscles moving, get your body active. We can do the same things on earth while we’re in isolation,” he said. But to Feustel, the most important thing a person can do right now is lean on the people they have in their lives.
Fuestel suggested embracing the time you have with family, to take advantage of technology to communicate with relatives, and lastly he said take comfort in the fact we’re all going through this together.
“People have to be patient, try to be positive, and think about coming out the other side in one piece.”
When that happens, it will feel like another giant leap for mankind.
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