My Pandemic Story.
Thank you, 3 Min Read, for giving us an opportunity to share.
I live on Long Island, about 35 minutes away from New York City. One of the cities that was declared a hot spot when the COVID pandemic was at its peak in the U.S.
When the virus reached the U.S. and New York, and everything shut down around March 2020, my life was moderately impacted.
But nothing would prepare me for what came at the start of 2021.
The remainder of 2020 was spent at home. Thankfully I also remained employed for the rest of this year.
At the start of 2021, however, I, along with the family members I was living with at the time, contracted COVID.
I was sick for a total of two weeks.
I was bedridden for the first week, battling a fever the entire time. I had a fever of over 100 degrees Fahrenheit for eight days straight — I took multiple ice baths to keep down my temperature.
After the eight days, my fever finally broke, and I started making a slow recovery.
In addition, I had body aches, constant nausea, and dizziness, which made it very difficult to eat. I lost a total of ten pounds in that two-week period.
But the time I spent sick would not compare with what came after.
Before I got sick with COVID, the owner of the company I worked for at the time decided to avoid being cautious and required all of us employees to work at the office again.
That is probably how I contracted the virus, to be honest.
I worked for a small company, meaning the owner was heavily involved in the day-to-day decisions.
He was forced to send everyone back home shortly after because another two people (after I got sick) tested positive for the virus.
Because we were forced to work from home again, he took out his frustrations on us (we were heavily micromanaged while we worked from home), especially those who disagreed with his decision to bring everyone back to the office again as soon as possible, me being one of them.
The reason I share this is because on February 8th, 2021, I was let go.
Being fired was the start of my discovery journey.
Losing my job forced me to reevaluate my life — to really look at the decisions I was making and whether they were taking me in the direction I wanted to go.
2021 was a year of self-reflection, action, plenty of mistakes, and growth.
I spent the year taking chances.
Having the time to reflect on what I was doing allowed me to stop lying to myself and realize I was nowhere where I wanted to be.
But more importantly, I wasn’t taking any action that would move me in the direction I wanted to go.
Perhaps one of the biggest accomplishments of 2021 was publishing my first blog.
I found Medium during the Pandemic — I never thought a platform like this existed.
I spent months reading blogs and was inspired to write myself, but it wasn’t until April 2021 that I hit the publish button.
And boy, did this change my life.
I made money from that first story. It didn’t reach a dollar. But knowing my writing had the potential to be monetized changed my perspective on what I could do.
I realized I was downplaying my abilities and getting in the way of pursuing something that had potential.
I began to believe I could make a career out of something I genuinely enjoyed.
Once that belief set in, I knew I couldn’t go back to working in an office or corporate environment.
Every decision I made after that was to figure out how to make a living without working in a cubicle.
To give you a brief recap — I invested in a company that was later sued. I’m still in the process of getting my investment principle back.
I participated in an affiliate marketing course with a family member that completely flopped — altogether, I think we spent around $1,500 — $2,000 each.
Throughout the summer, I made a few YouTube videos. If you’d like to check them out, here’s my channel.
(side note — I do plan to get back on YoutTube soon, but with a much better strategy)
I worked for Amazon for about four to five months at one of their AmazonFresh warehouses.
Toward the end of 2021, I was able to find a temporary remote job — this was a huge blessing because none of my business ventures panned out.
And I started bartending.
While all of this was happening, I also wrote a few blogs on Medium.
Oh, and I also met my boyfriend.
As you can see, the pandemic was the spark that lit the fire of change in my life.
Fast forward to now, here’s what I’ve been able to do — I’ve grown more consistent with my blogs and have become a much better writer.
Ended friendships and relationships that were dragging me down.
Moved out and became fully independent.
Started building an audience on Pinterest, and I’m doing really well with it.
Started working on my first digital product and have recuperated all the money I’ve lost in crappy investments via bartending and being disciplined with my budget.
The Pandemic was a reset button for my life.
I lost two close family members, and being unable to have funerals or have family and friends gather to mourn the loss was really painful.
But even through this pain, through the abrupt and difficult changes, this season transformed me, and I’m extremely grateful for it.
Being able to look back at a time that was so difficult for the entire world and have everything that happened somehow web and flow into an outcome that favored me is nothing short of a miracle — something only God could do.
I’m in awe of the life I have now, and I’m so grateful to God for keeping me on this earth and giving me a second chance to pursue my purpose.
I hope that your stories come to a hopeful continuation, as mine did.
God bless you.
