Living Life in Times of COVID

It's been a while since March 2020. That month when time seemed to slow down.

COVID19 entered Philippines and suddenly announcement of lockdowns were everywhere. I just came back from a week long vacation leave to visit home, process some business permits and attend a friend's wedding. Two weeks later, we were advised to move to WFH (Work-from-Home) setup.

That was 2 years ago. It's already that long but it still feels so fresh. But anyway, today's post is all about that 2 years span of updates and just getting day by day through series of lockdowns, challenges, achievements and realizations.

Photo from Unsplash

On the first month of lockdown, I jumped into podcasting just so I can share my poems (some of them are posted here), and it sounded weird to hear my own voice. Thanks to anchor, podcasting was made possible, even for an introverted girl like me. Feel free to listen to my podcast "Sugilanon" in Spotify.

I spent all 9 months of working in the comforts of my room in the 2-story apartment me and my brother's family are renting. Within that 4 walls,

• worked 9 hours a day as a technical writer
• drafting contents for Sugilanon
• read books and shop secondhand books from Shoppee. (Yeah! That was a time I got to read Harry Potter books 1-5. I'm currently looking for a hardbound Book 1&4 so that I can complete my hardbound collection) 
• play musical instruments. Mostly my Ukulele and the new Kalimba (still from Shoppee). Sometimes I record songs and post it in IG.
• rearranged my room so that I can record my painting. Yeah, I painted during my free time
• binge watch Netflix movies and series... but mostly Chinese drama. I basically fangirled over Xu Kai that year.
• attended Lingkod and CYA activities in Zoom. Yeah, prayer meetings still continued online.
• celebrated my 29th birthday there. We all did and then we just sent over food to neighboring units.
• and finally left Cebu by December and celebrated Christmas and New Year being quarantined when we arrived in the province.

We all thought 2021 would be better. Cases would die down and everything would soon go back to normal. But well... it's a prank. New COVID variants emerged and going back to Cebu was blurry. If 2020 seemed to be so slow paced. 2021 was different. I feel like everything happened so fast.

• enjoyed being a gardener in the farm. Planted veggies and some flowering trees
• when protocols were lifted, got to visit mountain gardens with my sister
• swimming in the nearby beach on Sundays
• attended prayer meetings at night on a hammock under our mango tree
• come June and Papa got COVID and I practically lived in the hospital to watch over him for 10 long days. We were all scattered. Me and Papa in a hospital. My brother quarantined in another town. Mama and my brother's family home quarantined in another town. My sister doing all the errands outside, buying medicines and other hospital needs.
• 4 birthdays not celebrated together, because we were all quarantined. So much for being excited for my 30th. I even planned to have a Jollibee party. but yeah, at least we got a cake.
• the following months were spent tagging along with Papa so I could manage his meds. We go to monthly checkups to monitor his Pneumonia TB.
• dated someone last October but ended it a day before Valentine's day 2022
• Oh, and I joined Toastmasters btw...
• October also brought the news of my promotion, 
• and on that day when my salary increased, my APE came out positive for Mild TB. Hello, November to me!

And so that's it! I'm basically on my 3rd month of medications. I'm fine, though. I guess the bacteria is inactive as I don't have any symptoms at all. Work is doing fine. Situations are getting better as well and we're going back to Cebu very soon. But I still hope for an extension. I kind of love staying put here. 

There's me living life in times of COVID for the past two years.