In Their Own Words

Making the best of a bad situation

In October 2019, I graduated with my Bachelor of Health Sciences and celebrated. Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait another semester to graduate as COVID-19 began in December of that year and all graduations were cancelled.

The reality of COVID didn’t really hit me until lockdowns occurred in March 2020. While many began to panic over getting laid off work, I was able to seize the opportunity and thrive. As someone who is always on the go, lockdowns allowed for me to slow down after spending years working hard at a degree and find new hobbies. It allowed me to bond with my younger cousin as she would stay over at my house and we would spend our days learning new recipes, watching new shows, playing soccer and talking about our lives. We’ve never been so close!

As for my relationship, COVID put a strain on it at first. It was difficult to find creative ways to hang out and trust that we kept our circles small. My health wasn’t the best and it was very important that I didn’t interact with many at the time. However, we learned to adapt and decided to take up an online course together and build on our skills. Due to us working on our skills, we got opportunities that we had been working toward for so long.

These opportunities led us to moving in together in a different city in January 2021. The experience was positive overall and we actually got engaged shortly after! For the longest time, I felt stuck in the direction of where my career and overall quality of life was taking me. However, being able to slow down, create my own routine, and have more freedom and independence allowed me to grow in ways that I never would have thought.

Overall, while COVID and all its restrictions and lockdowns were difficult across the world, I feel that I can look back at that time in years to come and know that I accomplished a lot of my goals and did things that I probably wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity to do otherwise.

Yes, restrictions are boring and take a lot away from you, but it’s all about what you make of the situation.

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Authors

Anisha Dhillon

British Columbia Institute of Technology
Burnaby, British Columbia

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