I am a bit timid to write my story after skimming through more than 100 stories written here, I feel that my story is just too ordinary and boring. Anyway, here I go.

My name is Tarek from Algeria. I am currently working in digital marketing. My work involves advertising, delivered through digital channels such as search engines, websites, etc. However, during the start of the pandemic, the company I work for quivered a bit and most of the departmental sectors informed their employees to have a shifting timetable where a small number of people were allowed to be at work. I think I really benefited from this new adjustment, I was able to enjoy more time with my family and just have time for myself without constantly worrying about going to work.

In the walls of lockdown in my house, I was able to venture into new opportunities with regard to my job. I have had the time to make a little extra money from working as a freelancer. I never knew I could provide assistance to many people virtually and make some money. And another positive which I had from this pandemic was having time to reconnect with friends. I remember having a ZOOM chat with friends I hadn’t talked to for more than 10 years and we just went down memory lane and that made me think about how far I have come. I now aim to nurture those relationships with my old friends and make them strong.

Things have normalized a bit and they are getting back to the way it was. But I have appreciated the time I had just to see how far I have come and how I need to handle my relationships with friends. Some negatives did happen during this time but I also benefited more by noting down the positives.