Journeying through the Pandemic
Disclaimer: This is just an introductory post. Subsequent to this things may become deeper and a bit more detailed and/or personal. Who knows?
When the pandemic first reached my beautiful island, like everyone, everywhere, I felt a wave of uncertainty. Of course I felt uncertain mostly about whether I would contract the virus and whether I would survive it, but I had this sense of faith, like someone greater was standing beside me, holding my hand and telling me to “relax”, and that I did. I kept a calm mentality, with the help of one of my closest friends at that time who I was spending lots of time with, and that undying voice in my head telling me “everything is going to be alright”. The pandemic assisted me in obtaining a job at The Produce box where I was responsible for delivering vegetables to persons who preferred to stay in the confines of their home as that was the directive at the time. I became somewhat of an essential worker, aye (let me have it) and that source of employment, though temporary, was lucrative.
I weathered the pandemic for the first few months and had my first set of online exams which was more stressful than anything I had encountered at that time but I endured exam after exam. Eventually, I became pregnant during the pandemic. I continued with school and the stressful online setting with exams sometimes lasting up to 24 hours and I was running on little to no sleep. Pregnancy then became the most challenging thing in my book of challenges up to that point as I had not only to worry about nourishing my unborn baby, my mind and my body but ensuring that I did everything humanly possibly not to contract the coronavirus. I was barred from going out as I would have liked and doing things which I knew I would have enjoyed and which would have made being pregnant much easier. Each restriction became more stringent than the next and each news brief more scary than the last. The news brief that really tested my faith however was the one informing the public that there was a coronavirus outbreak at the hospital which I was set to labor in, I immediately went into a state of panic as is the natural human response to unfavorable news but again, the voice continued to be my calm and I trusted that things would work out in my favor and my baby and I would be just fine.
I labored for 16 hours at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and my baby girl was born at 12:16am on March 13th 2021. We stayed there for two days with all the dreadful restrictions, the coronavirus still lingering around, no visitors whatsoever, no friends, no family but we left on the third day, happy and healthy as can be.
As I continue to journey through the pandemic with my baby, the calming voice of God and my undying faith and trust in him, the new normal is not one of my favorite things for sure, I hate the mask wearing most of all, the restrictions sometimes stop me from “living my best life” meaning that it disallows me from living worry free and enjoying the things I love wholeheartedly, but my journey through the pandemic was not all bad. I had the privilege of going to my first BLP annual conference and working the award stage there (while pregnant) and discovering a few things I am most passionate about including, this, writing and sharing my journey and experiences with the world. :)
Thank you for reading, see you again soon!
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