How has my life been impacted by Covid?
Covid-19, I think I can confidently say, has impacted everybody’s life at some point in the last two in a half years. For me, there have been some serious ups and downs, but the bright side is, I’m still pushing through life.
In the midst of the first extreme outbreak, when lockdown first took over the world, it was a terrible time. I was dealing with some mental issues and they only increased due to isolation. My physical health also decreased because my days consisted of Netflix, school work, eating, and sleeping. Thankfully though, once the summer days started to appear, I did rekindle my love of hiking, which helped me both mentally and physically. It was one of the few activities I could do alone or with my friends since we were outside.
With covid-19 came a new respect for nature and I learned that you can’t always have fun in the indoors. Corny I know, but it’s true.
However, along with Covid-19 also came with relationship strains. Unfortunately, my mom lived in a different house with my step dad and siblings. Since I was too afraid to leave the house, I barely some them during the lockdown. Even though, we had facetime, it wasn’t the same and since we both missed each dearly we would become easily irritated with each other. It sucked but we survived.
Although one relationship was strained, another prospered. My grandparents are my heart and soul, the pure joy in my life, and not being able to see them destroyed me. I constantly worried about them throughout lockdown considering that my nana has survived two open heart surgeries, has a pacemaker, and kicked cancer’s butt, so honestly my worry was justified. My grandpa on the other hand was an advid smoker growing up, so as he aged so did his lungs at a rather fast pace, and soon was diagnosed with COPD. As we all know Covid hits the lungs the hardest on top of other organs, so again my worry was justified.
I was afraid I was going to lose them at some point, it felt inevitable during that terrifying time. However, I have always been extremely close with them, which meant during quaratine I was making regular phone calls, checking in, saying hi, wondering what they were up to, you know, the little things. Then my nana learned how to text and it became a daily thing.
Even though we were already close, we became even closer during this time. A lot of people know about my love for my grandparents, but now we have an unbreakable bond. In fact, here’s a picture of us recently. My birthday is on July 4th, and although I am NOT impressed with the recent happenings in America, I knew my grandparents would show up in red, white, and blue, so I popped on shirt for a quick picture. My grandpa calls me his firecracker and my nana calls me her kaboom girl.
So that was the heart of Covid in one quick summary, but now I cannot deny that fear still nips at my toes over the heavy word.
While abroad in the fall semester, my friends and I almost got stuck in Africa until Christmas. With the new omnivirus hitting Africa, they closed down their borders towards the end of the semester. It was a terrifying time and the only thing I could think about was coming home.
When it comes to school and work even, it has it’s pros and cons. Schools moving to online was a difficult transition to make and definitely was not something I was used to. However, I think that sometimes it has its benefits. Even though, there were deadlines, we working at our own pace. When it came to work, I’m a to-go server now, which DID NOT exist before Covid in several restaurants. So, who knows what I would be doing for work now.
Even though Covid was a scary time, you also have to take risks and that’s something that I try doing still. Of course I take the necessary safety precautions like, wearing masks when needed, getting vaccinated, getting boostered, and looking out for others. But with Covid also came some good things. My relationship with my grandparents is stronger than ever and I am constantly checking up them, although they try to convince they are still 39 and healthy. I took the biggest risk of my life and traveled to Morocco for school. It took a lot of convincing, but I’m glad I did it.
Living with Covid-19 will probably always be a thing in our lives, but as long as we look out for each other and even strangers, then we will survive. That’s how Covid will continue to impact my life. It adds empathy as well sympathy in my everyday actions. It has made me more kind and caring and considerate of others which is soemthing I don’t admit very often.
So yes, Covid is scary and it has impacted all our lives, but sometimes looking on the bright side or at least the somewhat brighter side is the only way to keep pushing through life.
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