Day 57: A Welcome Break
Day 57: May 22, 2020
Global cases: 5,298,207; Deaths: 339,425
Egypt cases: 15,786; Deaths: 707
Hussein Elmoataz Bellah
TV and Digital Senior Masters Alumnus
No one can imagine the amount of psychological pain I have had to endure because of what we are all currently witnessing on earth; the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in canceling a good travel opportunity, various work plans, even soccer games which are the main entertaining aspect in my life.
This is in addition to not having the luxury to go out for some coffee with friends. What is more painful is that the beginning of 2020 was showing me promising signs that this will be one of the best years in my life, and … everything changed in a few hours.
However, I have to admit that what is happening now helped me to achieve peace of mind. Before going through the reasons that have driven me to this state, I have to show how my life was before the beginning of the pandemic. I was always in a rush, I didn’t want to miss any work opportunities; I wanted to gain more experience and make more money at the same time that I wanted to finish my graduate studies quickly, which resulted in overloading the courses I had to take.
In addition to going to the gym to lose weight, I was very keen not to miss any outings with friends. Yes, I achieved what I was planning for in most of these aspects, but in others, I didn’t reach what I was aiming for, which was quite depressing for me.
My life had been very busy, but I now realize that this pace was not doing me justice. At the beginning of the quarantine period, I was totally down, but when I realized that this is not going to end soon, I began to reassess my life and realized that the quarantine period proved that I really needed a break from life. What I have achieved so far is okay, but my life was a mess and I felt that I missed out on a lot.
For The Caravan‘s previous diary entries in Arabic and English go to our COVID-19 Special Coverage page.
I am now able to set priorities in my life, starting with what should be done now and what should be postponed, having some rest has given me a great opportunity to re-plan my life.
Lastly, I learned that I should not take everything for granted, and should be grateful for anything that happens to me. Yes, I learned it the hard way, but it was a great chance to feel grateful for what I am having now. From now on I will not be in a rush, I will put work as a priority when it is required, I will make social life as a priority when I see it’s important and for sure I WILL HAVE A BREAK AND ME TIME WHEN I NEED THIS.
The moral of the story is that we have all realized that we can lose everything in less than a moment, so we should not be greedy and we should give ourselves a break and make priorities in our lives.
And I know that this is irrelevant to what is written, but please whatever happens in the next few days, stay positive and try to benefit out of this time, because one day we will wish that we go back to this time.
