I might be a hermit

 I've always known I like my own company. I didn't have friends, we lived quite isolated in the countryside, everyone around was either my own relatives or their relatives. In the early '70s there was a distinct lack of babies and children, there were first two (me and my cousin) and later six (our siblings and two neighbours's kids). Generation before us was THE baby boom generation after the war. So, because I wasn't very interested in wrestling in mud and tearing heavy machinery to parts, I had to find ways to keep me occupied.

I learnt to read all by myself when I was five, I learnt to sew and knit and crochet a bit later. In between I learnt how to pick mushrooms - quite an achievement because at that point I didn't eat any. My grandparents taught me, and I knew how to read so I read mushroom picking guides. At school I had some friends, basically we all considered everyone a friend because there was less than 50 pupils during my first years at school. In the whole school. 

But even then I felt a bit isolated, because most girls lived right next to school and I lived in the middle of the forest.

Later I went to a boarding school, which was the absolute peak of my social life. I even have managed to keep in touch with one of my then  friends  - we meet only twice a year, but we still hold on.

My university era was, again, less social (I lived in shared flat with two other girls from other schools/unis and during those years we were tight pack, but after that we just vanished from each others lifes) I keep occasional contact to few of my fellow student mates, but it's professional, circles are so small. I was already living with my hb ( when I wasn't staying in uni town).

I got job, then another and then another. I got kids, lost kids,  and realised I didn't want much from my life. I'm content here if I can't go to Mars.

It's been a year since covid came here. Since then I've worked mostly from home. I do miss meeting my clients, and I look forward to meet few of my co-workers ( but not all of them) when we must meet at the office, but I'm relieved when I come back home. I do once a week shopping for groceries, and if I have to go to town otherwise I feel uneasy. ( we call running to errands "going to town"). I work long hours, much more than before this virus. 

I see my sister about once every fortnight, my parents once or twice a week  and my aunt few times a week. And I mean SEE, we talk through open doors/windows when I'm dropping groceries or my lil sis is picking a bag of old kids' clothes for number one or number two. Last time I've been inside anyone else's home was in summer, and we were mostly on the patio. Sometimes, maybe once a month, I go for a walk with sis, we keep our 2m distance. My brother lives in high infection rate area, we don't see each other, but now we use Signal to keep in touch.

And I'm OK with this.  Of course I'm extremely lucky because I CAN work from home full time, I never had any social hobbies like choir ( can't sing) or theatre or drinking with friends. I have decided a long ago not to go holidays abroad (because of environmental reasons and because it is so difficult to find petsitter for our pack). I'm content on my solitude, I find no reasons to interact people in real life. Maybe this is just a continuation from my chilhood, when I had whole universe with me in my books. Now it's Internet and I don't have to wait for two weeks to get letter from Vienna.

I'm not missing anything, there is no void of iterraction in my life. All right, I lied. I DO miss meeting and holding number two! She'll be one in no time and I've hold her only few times. I miss the smell of a baby.

But it is what it is. I'm living content in a middle of a forest. I'm about to finish my covid tracker training soon, so that's another skill I can claim to have. Doing tracking means I will not meet people, I'm contacting them only by phone...