14th March 2020
I received a call from my employer. I was informed that they were closing down the operations of the business temporarily due to COVID-19 until a favorable environment was born to open the doors again.

Today is 17th March 2021
The doors haven’t been opened yet…

I was involved in the field of tourism although I am now working as a part-time content writer, looking for a stable opportunity. Tourism had been a most profitable trade for many years in Sri Lanka with provisionally estimated earnings of more than USD 3,600 million in 2019 until COVID-19 hit hard. Hoteliers, restauranteurs, bartenders, travel agents, tourist guides, drivers, transport agents, and even the old man who sold his handmade artifacts to the tourists at the end of the street, lost their jobs. I was one of them.

I haven’t been tested positive for the virus, nor was I stuck in a foreign land yearning to return home. Nevertheless, working as a travel agent, I cannot emphasize how badly this unprecedented calamity affected my life. Trying to put food on the plate has been the real struggle that taught me one very important lesson. That is, to have a second (and third, if possible) source of income rather than depending on one particular job. I believe the most important lessons are learned from the situations we face in our lives and the experiences they provide.

The jab – “AstraZeneca” is now being used in Sri Lanka and there are rumors about it too, questioning its efficacy. I hope the rumors are wrong. I hope!

“Life,” as it appears to me, is a combination of both good and bad. There will be good times as well as bad ones and some of those might be inevitable, like the COVID-19 outbreak. As Darwin says, “It’s not the strongest of the species that survive nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”

Dealing with the detrimental consequences of COVID-19 has been an onerous task for most people. Some dreams are shattered. Some are postponed. Few thrive, but many suffer. It’s our responsibility to help others in these difficult times in our capacity.

WE WILL RECOVER!