The Positive Side of the Covid-19 Pandemic

For anyone who read the title and thought "sheesh, she must be crazy", don't jump the gun on me and make assumptions. There have been positive things that have come out of this pandemic and being trapped at home, for me at least. I've heard so much negativity towards the pandemic that I would like to shed some light onto the positive side of it.

To give some back story, when the pandemic hit, I was in my senior year of high school and about to graduate in less than four months. However, I felt like everything was falling apart because I had lost a very close family member. Life didn't feel the same and I couldn't stand being at school anymore. I wished for a way for me to stay home without the repercussions of missing school. Friday, March 13th, 2020, my class was told that we might not have school that following Monday because Covid-19 cases were racking up fast and everyone was scared, except me. I thought it was nonsense and that we would end up having to go back to school the next week. Little did I know that my wish was about to be granted. I went home the same day and told my mom the news and even she was scared, yet I was so happy to not have to go back to school or to have to deal with anyone at all. My job at the time had told us that work was cancelled until further notice because of Covid-19 as well. My job was draining the life from me and I was honestly about ready to quit anyway, but I've never been a quitter so I didn't. Because of Covid-19, I didn't have to stress anymore about deadlines or schedules or trying to please so many other people to point where I wasn't giving myself the proper mental health care that I needed. Covid-19 became my escape route to enjoy the last few months of my senior year of high school in peace and with my family.

Before Covid-19 hit, I was a very busy person. I was always working or in school. I was barely home and when I was, I slept, ate, and did homework. I never had any time to spend with my family or to take for myself no matter how much rearranging of my schedule I did. There was never enough time in the day. I could feel how drained I would be by the end of every day and after the death in my family I felt as if I couldn't do it anymore. I didn't have a steady support system from any family or friends. No one knew how to help me at all with my grief. I was suffocating from it and had no way out of it. But, with Covid-19 becoming a playing card in my deck, I was able to be home 24/7, take time for myself, and spend even more time with my family. I felt 100 times happier than before and I don't regret saying that at all. I was given an opportunity to help myself through the grieving process of the death in my family. And guess what, it worked!! By the time my birthday rolled around a month after the pandemic started, I felt at peace with life, and finally found my way to the acceptance stage of the death in my family.

For the past year, all I have heard about are the negatives things that happened to people when the pandemic started. But not one person stopped to say "something good happened to me". By me telling my story, it sheds a different light on how this pandemic has affected people. The point of all of this is to remember that life is not always about the bad stuff that you endure or witness. It's about making the most of the situation you are in and recognize the positive side of it to help you keep moving forward.