When it came to COVID-19, I knew about the pandemic happening at about the end of February. My first thought was “Oh, it is just a virus that will go away. It will not end up being severe.” How funny that thought was as my entire world has flipped upside down due to this pandemic.

First off, I was not taking the virus seriously enough and left the country for spring break to visit my fiancé in South Africa. My family was adamant that I should not go, but I was defiant and set in my ways. This was the starting point when the virus started feeling real to me as I was being screened at the airport, questioned about if I went into certain countries, and almost was unable to come home due to people trying to go back to America.

When I landed in America, it was shocking to me to see how everything was being limited from before I left, when life was normal. Not only that, but I was also coming back to the thought that my children would be going back to school the next day, and I would be returning to school, but I was alerted to the schools being delayed a week. That week became the rest of the semester, which was a hard pill for me to swallow for multiple reasons.

However, it was mainly due to me having to adjust to remote learning with children; not only that, but focusing on their schooling when two of my children have disabilities. This has been the most challenging part for me as I thrive on routine, and being a visual mixed auditory learner, I do not thrive with remote learning as I do with brick and motor learning. Furthermore, I had to learn how to structure my day better and balance my studies. Thankfully, I am blessed enough to where I have all the technology necessary, so I did not have to go out and buy anything to be successful. However, while some had challenges due to that, I had difficulties due to not having the support, especially when it came to childcare. I had to deal with learning while also being a parent trying to explain to my children that it was my school time, and they could not be disturbing me was a huge challenge!

Additionally, with all the challenges and adjustments, I had to make in my personal life, I learned how to value family time, value being my children’s teacher, and being able to be fully hands-on. As a society, we get so invested in ourselves with work, school, and outside things we tend to put our family’s needs last, which is sad. I learned to have more patience and be more flexible than I was before this virus started. Not everything is in our control, which was a difficult thing to learn since I am a very rigid person.

In addition to all these things, I learned about myself, the biggest lesson of all was to accept a challenge. I knew people who decided they were going to accept a pass or fail. Not only that, but some chose to withdraw from a class due to this virus. However, as tempting as that was, I decided to embrace this change. I knew going into this semester what my goal was, and that was to learn and do well even if it was done remotely. I still was able to learn with my challenges and with a lack of support.

However, as with everyone, struggles came the need to destress. My method is doing some meditation mixed with some self-care such as a spa day to myself. Even though I am a mother, I made the time to give myself 30 minutes per day to focus on regrouping myself. This is a technique that has worked for me throughout the semester. For example, I easily get overwhelmed when it comes to assignments; so I would tell myself to do one portion, to take a break, gather my thoughts, and then go back to the assignment rather than waiting until the very last minute, which every student ends up being guilty of at least once.

In conclusion, while this COVID-19 has been challenging to adjust to, it taught me a lot of things I do not believe I would have ever learned unless a serious thing such as this happened. I learned to never take for granted God as he is the reason I did not get stuck out of the country. I learned to embrace family time, and I have learned always to challenge myself even when the task seems impossible and I just want to give up. This is a virus that will forever change my life, and I will never be the same after this -in a good way.