The ups and downs of my COVID-19 experience have been a rollercoaster. To start with I have type 1 diabetes so I was and still am constantly in fear of getting the virus. I also have severe anxiety and depression so working from home didn’t help any of those as I very quickly became demotivated and unproductive. I never worked from home before and always try to keep my work at work so that in the evenings and over weekends I get a chance to switch off from all the stress not affecting my personal life. Working from home meant I was constantly faced and surrounded by my personal life stresses as well as my work life stresses.

On the positive side, I was able to prolong my moving out on my own by a whole 8 months which gave me the opportunity to mentally prepare for this next phase in my life. I also felt that personally going through the isolation period allowed me time to focus on myself and grow as a person.

Ironically, I was able to bring my entire extended family together for the first time in over 10 years and we grew closer together despite being physically apart.

At the beginning of the lockdown I was more upset than anything else but seeing how I and those around me have grown I know that it was meant to happen. Because of this pandemic, my perspective on life and on the challenges we as humans face has changed and this has helped me make peace with it all. My experience is most definitely not as heartbreaking as others and for that, I am truly grateful. I hope that we can all learn something from our personal experiences to help us make it through.