COVID and life changes

The pandemic has drastically changed people’s lives forever. Some people lost their jobs, others got really sick, or have even lost their loved ones. When COVID hit, I had so many unanswered questions. How long is it going to take for this to end? Is life ever going to be the same again? Am I going to get sick? If yes, how bad is it going to be? Is my family going to be okay? Thankfully, I didn’t get the disease and I haven’t lost anyone that I love, but COVID has still changed my life.

The first thing that had a huge impact in my life was when my flight to go back home got canceled. I left home in July 2019 to come study in the United States, and I was supposed to visit my family in June 2020. Classes went from in person to remote, so I wasn’t sure if I wanted to stay here or go back to Brazil and stay with my family. Since I did not know how difficult it would be to come back to the US once classes went back to normal, I decided to stay. Since then, I didn’t get to see my family and it hasn’t been easy to be away from them for so long.

In 20 years, I hope that my family and friends can still remember my story and these difficult times. Not in a sad way, but remembering how I was able to go through this by myself so I could pursue my dream to study and start a career in this country. I was the first one in my family to do this, so maybe I’ll inspire others to do the same. I wish I had kept a journal to write about all this and preserve my story, but thankfully we have social media nowadays. I have been posting on my Instagram since 2011, so anyone can see what’s been going on in my life since I was still living in Brazil until now with the pandemic. I think it’s important to keep something like that -not necessarily an Instagram account, but anything that you can keep some memories/pictures/posts- so you and whoever you want can go back to it and remember your story.