Shedding Baby Skin

Last Friday, after a long week or work, I was washing the dishes. Just as I was finishing, I started to notice that my fingers were spongy, similar to how they get when I spend too long in the shower or a swimming pool. Later, I saw that the skin on my finger tips for very dry and bits of the skin were coming off. They felt rougher than usual, which is a feeling I had never known before. 

For the longest time, my friends and family called my hands baby hands, because they are tiny and soft. Usually, the soft skin we have as babies sheds as we get older and our hands get rougher. Mine never did, and at one point I happily made peace that they would never harden like they do for other adults. 

But alas, at the age of 26 I finally see it happen. I am not particularly upset about my skin becoming rougher. But it does make me think about some lifestyle changes that Covid has forced me to behave more like a traditional adult. 

Before lockdown, I barely spent time at home, let alone doing housework. Washing dishes was maybe a thrice a week affair, whereas now it feels like a thrice a day affair, given that every little dish include a cup of coffee is consumed at home. A lot more time in spent cooking and cleaning too. Before lockdown, eating out was common, and my cleaning lady did the most wonderful job cleaning the house once every fortnight, leading to all my time outside work hours being entirely my own. 

All the time I would spend on eating out, or various other activities with friends was very much an extension of college life, where seeing friends every few days was part of life, and having a regular routine was rare. Friday and Saturday nights were never spent at home, unless someone cancelled. Other than the fixed work hours, it was hard to predict what I'd be doing at any other hour of my waking day or night. 

Ever since the lockdown began, it has become more important to have a routine so that I remain sane and reasonably productive. I find myself waking up at the same time everyday, and sleeping around the same time. I order groceries online every weekend, and cook nearly every meal. There is a lot more housework now that I spend all my time at home. More cooking and cleaning. 

None of this seems negative to me, but the idea of a routine, household chores and cooking every meal, is one I thought of as a far away concept, adopted by adults in other stages of life that weren't yet in my immediate friends circle. It's the type of routine and placid life I imagine, not for myself per se, but for other, mature adults. 

So yes, coming back to my main concern of the day, baby skin. I see it slowly shedding as I become used to this new lifestyle. I don't know if it's a temporary dryness, perhaps one that will go away if I moisturize enough, which I have been doing everytime I wash my hands or clean the dishes now. Or perhaps it will shed until my whole hand, not just my fingertips, are rough, similar to other adults. Part of me certainly hopes that it stays.