Curse or opportunity?
As we approach the one year anniversary of Covid-19 being declared a global pandemic, it’s important to pause and reflect on the past 12 months.
I remember when I first heard the news about the outbreak in Wuhan. I was in the UK for a company event and was travelling back and forth between Dublin and London for team meetings. Travelling was still a thing. I took a flight back home to Johannesburg on the first day of the Chinese New Year. The first day of the year of the rat.
Less than a month later I was back on a plane to London — but this time with more fear and apprehension. Covid-19 was declared a global health crisis and it was clear that the virus was being spread by people travelling from country to country. I returned home a week later — nervous and concerned — but felt safe back home since the virus was spreading across Europe and North America and Africa was still Covid-19 free.
Fast forward to two weeks later — the first Covid-19 diagnosis was made in South Africa and this is when our lives changed forever. I still did not know much about the virus and this was scary. I did not know how a country like South Africa will be able to cope with such a health crisis. Will we have access to the necessary health care (which is hardly available on a normal day)? Will we be able to access food and medicine? Will we still be able to work and earn money? Will we still have clean water and electricity? Will we survive if we get sick?
And then we entered a full national lockdown. The army and police force were deployed, arresting people who left their homes without good reason. We were queuing outside grocery stores and pharmacies, armed with masks, gloves and hand sanitizer (if you were able to find some). It felt like a strange version of the apocalypse.
Now, almost 12 months later, we have lived through the period of uncertainty. We have adapted and are now living what we like to refer to as our “new normal”. Yes, I survived home-schooling, remote-working, Zoom-birthday parties, wine-rationing (thanks to random bans on alcohol sales during lockdown) and home-exercising.
The question I ask myself today is: “Was the year of the rat a curse or an opportunity?”
Yes, rats are known for spreading disease (coincidentally) and they are definitely not the type of animal that gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling when you think of them. Rats are also persistent and adaptable — they can survive almost anywhere, eat almost anything an are able to reproduce rapidly.
I know thousands of people world-wide have suffered due to Covid-19 — either because of the illness directly or because of the terrible repercussions it had on the global economy, jobs, education and just the general psychological wellbeing of everyone who had to struggle to survive.
But a few have thrived — spotting opportunities where there was a lot of uncertainty, helping to solve some of the new problems we were faced with and generally, instead of just keeping afloat, swimming the race of their lives.
I admire those with loads of resilience, who adapt and evolve and live their best lives everyday thanks to their persistence. There is a lesson to be learnt from the “thrivers” among us — its’ all about perspective. If you see your situation as a curse, it will be difficult to see the light in the darkness.
The Chinese community recently celebrated the lunar New Year and we have now officially entered the year of the ox. This is the year to achieve those goals you never got around to — as long as you work as hard as the ox does, you will see the rewards.
If 2020 left you feeling hopeless and drained, let 2021 be your year of opportunity. Being alive is not a curse. No matter how tough it gets, there is always an opportunity to do better.
