Dear COVID-19,
How things have changed so much in less than a hundred days.
My personal experience has been slightly different, I guess. I made the choice to leave my job in early February and officially left the company in March. I had decided that I wanted to take a short break, maybe a month or two, to do things that I wanted to do like visit the museum, pop by all the cafes I had on my list, rest, rejuvenate – an "Eat, Pray, Love" of sorts. I got to enjoy all of 2 weeks of it, before circuit breaker started... and I've been at home ever since.
Trips that I planned with my friends, even celebrating my boyfriend's cousin's wedding in London, which we had been so excited about, that's all out the window. But really, that's the least of my worries. As the world's economies stumble, what really scares me right now is not knowing when I'll be financially stable again. I have savings, and I usually pride myself on being quite on top of my finances, but where I currently am right now, I'm still having to spend money but most of my regular income has stopped coming in. And it's not just me. My boyfriend who does sales is also seeing his income slow down. We initially ended last year by applying for our very first BTO, and tried again at the start of the year (both times we were unfortunately not successful). Between you and me, I'm not sure if we'll even be financially confident enough to try again this year. I used to think, yeah, I'll probably get married in the next year or two, but at this point... it's up in the air. Dreams have to be put on hold for a bit. And not knowing, not being in control, that gives me some anxiety.
It's uncomfortable thinking this might be the "new normal", but at the same time we've all been given a new perspective on life. Whatever fragments of time we get with our loved ones we now cherish it so much more. We find small joys in our everyday, like making your favourite drink, watching the sun set each day and counting down to the next time you can give your best friend a hug.
COVID-19, I hope you won't stay and make yourself too cosy. I'm looking forward to a life without you in it.