A few weeks ago, I’ve wrote this letter and posted it to my group. I feel as if now is the time to share this;
I must say, I’m not impressed with the pain and distress that you have put all of us through. Since you’ve become known to us, you’ve destroyed so many lives. When you haven’t took loved ones away from us, you’ve kept us separated from each other. It’s been nearly a year and you had separated families away from each other, even going as far as to keep some of us prisoners in our own homes with no emotional support. Even if it wasn’t caused by you directly, you did bring about the deaths of millions of others. You’ve closed businesses, you’ve caused a lot of fall outs and you’ve left a lot of people with guilt about not visiting their loved ones.
But I’m telling you this straight, you don’t frighten me.
Yes, I’m terrified of falling ill. Yes, I’m terrified of being out amongst crowds when I’m at the supermarkets. And yes, I’m terrified of passing anything to my parents of whom I live with (And I am scared of putting them through this nightmare).
But you still don’t frighten me.
Because you gave me the opportunity to reflect, and I’ve done a lot of reflection. You didn’t give me any options to do apart from it. Before you’ve come to ruin our lives, I’ve believed that I was weak. That I couldn’t do anything right and that I would never amount to anything. I thought that I was a burden to the whole world and that everyone would be better off without me.
And you’ve proved me wrong.
When you first came along, all I wanted to do was to find out how I could help. Because of you, we’ve been supporting a lot of new starters into our hospitals, making sure that they are safe to help us out when our hospitals needed all the help they could get. Because of you, I was able to learn new skills which I can take with me in the future. Because of you, I was able to gain a further understanding to who I am.
If I could turn back time, I would take myself back to 2019. No. I would take myself back to 2005, when I was younger and was dealing with a lot of problems at school. I would have told my eleven-year-old self that things may seem bleak now (and they might not improve in ten years’ time), but in fifteen years, something will happen. And she will find that she will be facing more challenges than the cruel children she faced in the classroom or on the streets. And she will realise that she is the strongest person that she’ll ever known.
I would tell her about you, and the fact that even though you have forced many people to stay at home. She’ll face you everyday to come into the office and play her role in protecting employees, patients and visitors from your horrid manners, to do whatever she could to ensure that you don’t wreck another family. She will interact with people who show her no respect, but she will rise above them. But most importantly, despite all that you’ve done to everyone, you’ll never take her spirit away. That soon she’ll be entering a war zone, doing her bit and she will be strong because of it.
You’ve made me realise that I am stronger than I’ve ever been before.
That’s why you don’t frighten me.
And if you think you’ll never go away, let me tell you this. We’ve got rid of the Spanish flu in 1918, which took us two years to be free from. This time, we’re at an advantage as we now have scientific research to show you that we will win. And we’re winning that battle already. In the UK, we’ve vaccinated over two million people (myself included).
We’ve beaten illnesses like you before.
So, don’t get too comfortable. Soon you will be (and trust me, you will be) a thing of the past.
