This pandemic has brought about negative and positive changes for my family and I. I had been working in the tourism industry for over two years and once COVID-19 hit our hours were reduced and this made it difficult to make ends meet and get the basic necessities needed. This made my family and I along with close friends to think outside the box on what we could do to support ourselves.

Despite the difficulties faced we have learned to use our talents and skills to be self-reliant. We knew we had to use our skills and talents to create ways to receive income through cooking, baking, planting, and having a garden of our own.

I have seen how difficult and burdening the pandemic has become in many countries and even in Fiji. I feel sad at times when I continue to see in the news that cases are still going up in some places. However, I learned that despite all that is happening, we can do something and not just be sad and lonely all the time because of the situation we are in. I learned that there are a lot of activities we can do and we can also turn to nature through planting and growing a garden, I found this very relaxing.

Also making dishes for my family and spending more time with them, has made me realize that there are still good things that the pandemic has left in us. Because of this pandemic, I grew closer to my family and I also discovered a lot of things that I never knew I could actually do.