The Past Few Days Have Been Difficult
It’s Time To Bounce Back
Every once in a while you feel like everything is going your way. For example, this was my life in October and the first week of November:
- started getting traction on Medium even when I’m a bang-average writer,
- continued working on my newsletter and got unexpectedly good feedback. I have almost made it to 100 subscribers (what are you waiting for? Help me remove the “almost”),
- found new paying customers for my AI icon generator SaaS without any money spent on advertising,
- and, came back to my home to spend time with my family after getting 6 weeks of work-from-home approved from my organization.
Life was good. Until…
Well, the bad part also started in October, it was just that I was far away physically.
My grandfather (mother’s father) fell ill with dengue. He lives far away in the beautiful valley city of Dehradun. I spend most of my year working in the Silicon Valley of India, Bangalore.
My mom and dad had to rush to Dehradun and take care of him. Thankfully, my grandfather recovered and is healthy now.
But, soon, another tragedy struck. My mother suddenly developed an issue with her heart. She had to undergo a heart surgery. It was critical and life-threatening. My God’s Grace, the operation was successful.
All this while I was still in Bangalore. More than 1000 km away, just receiving updates via one call every day.
I decided it was time to return to help out my family.
I finished up my work obligations as fast as a corporate slave could, took permission to work from home, and returned to my city, Lucknow (where my parents live).
This was on 29th October.
I was back. We had a few days of peace. My mother was slowly recovering, any heart operation makes a person weak for at least the next few months both physically and mentally.
But, the peace was short-lived.
Just last week, our old nemesis dengue struck again. This time my father was the victim.
A heart patient at home, a dengue patient in the hospital, and me running in circles.
I had to call up my elder sister who was busy with her PhD work from another city.
After 3 days of hospitalization, my father recovered too.
But with these constant illnesses and recoveries, there was one man left untouched by the pathogens of this world: Me.
Not. For. Long.
A couple of days after my father was back home, I went down with a fever.
It was over 100 degrees Celsius yesterday, but today I feel much better.
And, now I’m back to work.
I still managed to squeeze out my weekly newsletter edition amidst all this. I managed to publish at least a short form story even with my illness.
At the same time, I had to take a couple of days off from my office. I had to stop working on my first eBook.
These were necessary sacrifices.
Lessons I’ve learned over the last few days
- Always prioritize your health. If you’re not healthy you can get nothing done.
- Express your love to your family. You never know when anything can happen.
- If you’re passionate about it, you can find a way to work on it.
I leave it with the most important lesson…
Key Message: Always remember, whether it’s good or bad, it shall pass.
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