Mari from Norway

This is a picture I took with my brother ! I help him with his homework since he doesn't go to school anymore

Hi, My name is Mari, I am 19 years old and I live in Norway.

My situation is not that far from normal. I live in a very small town with only 2500 inhabitants, and currently we don’t have any cases of the virus in my town. The Norwegian government did a great job to prevent the spread of the virus in the beginning of this situation –people are not allowed to travael within the country, and in small stores they can’t take in more than 8 customers at one time etc.

I graduated secondary school last june, and I decided to move back to my home town for a year, to work, before I start my business and economy degree at the University this fall. Since my town is pretty isolated I am still able to work as usual. I have a full job in my dads business.

I am a bikini fitness athlete, and before the lockdown I was training for the fall season, so I try to do some good home workouts as well as cardio outdoors. I do love being creative so I spend a lot of time knitting, bullet journaling, baking etc. I recently planted a lot of seeds, to grow my own vegetables.

Since my everday life is pretty normal I haven’t had to adjust much. But one thing I enjoy about this lockdown situation is that it forces people to calm down, relax and actually spend time with each other. The last couple of years have been so stressfull for me, and I almost feel guilty if I take some time to just relax, but now we are forced to look around us, we have time to explore new hobbies and do all the things we normally don’t have the time to do.

I use our national broadcasting channel a lot, because I trust that they serve us truthfull information. They also update the number of cases and deaths on their webpage so that you don’t have to watch the news or listen to the radio to keep up.

I have gotten inspired to support local businesses more, take more environmentally friendly decisions. And I also want to explore more of my own country. I don’t think have ever really travelled in Norway, or had a vacation here.

I believe that we will get through this together, and if anything it will make us stronger and more aware of our actions.