The year 2020 came with an unpredictable pandemic that has never been witnessed by humanity in the last 10 decades. We were going about our daily lives without a clue about what would come. Everyone was used to the normal routine of waking up early and getting ready for work while the kids prepared to go to school. People looked forward to crowded weddings and parties to connect, and share sumptuous meals; with everyone talking across the table, boisterous laughter in the air, and dancing to music. I always loved this African culture where people let loose, bond, and forget about any problems or worries in the world.
I heard about the outbreak in Wuhan on the news and social media but brushed it aside, thinking it was one of those diseases that would come, and soon be controlled. Globalization comes with its perks and has made life more convenient. It has made it much easier to travel across the globe to trade, vacations, and medical tourism. However, ironically, it also made it difficult to prevent the pandemic from spreading like wildfire. There was the first outbreak in Nigeria on the 27th of February 2020. I was worried about it, considering I had loved ones with underlying health conditions. I prayed this would be held under control like the Ebola Virus, but it was difficult due to the rapid movement of people in and out of the country, and COVID was highly contagious and airborne, unlike Ebola which was only spread during the last stage of the disease through direct human contact with bodily fluids from an infected person.
Prior to COVID-19, face masks were typically used mainly by doctors, nurses, or waste management staff. Then came the announcement via the news and other media outlets, to compulsorily wear the mask. This was followed by a mail from our Human Resources Department. The next was the need for social distancing and complete lockdown when the pandemic became difficult to control. I assumed this would all become history in a couple of weeks but little did I know what awaited the world.
The COVID-19 lockdown came with good, bad, and ugly events. I called this period, “The Pause”, because before COVID, we were living our routine daily lives and never really got the chance to know one another well enough. We only had weekends to sit with our loved ones to bond a little while the weekdays were spent commuting, at the workplace, and coming back home exhausted.
2020 was the year I attained a conscious growth mindset and self-awareness. I learned how to accept and overcome my weaknesses, and embraced challenges instead of avoiding them. This was the year I learned how to bake from YouTube because I was afraid to order a birthday cake for my son’s birthday, due to fear of contracting the Virus.
The most shocking revelation of all was the rate of divorce and the increase in the number of appointments for marriage counselling sessions. Prior to the lockdown period, most spouses had been putting up a façade, masking their true selves, and personalities. A lot of spouses discovered that late nights which were previously kept, purportedly due to work, were in fact escape avenues to be at night clubs to drink with friends, or for extramarital affairs.
Hence COVID-19 was a year of overwhelming sense of self-awareness, and revelations.
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