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Does anybody else feel like that they are learning a lot of life lessons during this quarantine? Does anybody else even feel like, perhaps they were damn fools before, blind to a lot? A lot about themselves and the world?
I was feeling pretty on top of the world before this pandemic started. My career was going well. My partner and I had just purchased a home. I had a group of wonderful friends (I still do and talk to them daily because it saves me.) But I remember saying to my partner *a lot* during those few great months: I’m afraid the other shoe will drop. I remember saying, “People don’t get to be this happy, right? Something has to go wrong to balance things out.” And now I’m regretting how very correct I was. But, I do have some perspective here: COVID-19 didn’t show up to personally put a damper on my party. There are millions of people who feel like the Coronavirus rained on their parade. And, for even more perspective, there are people for whom the Coronavirus didn’t make their wonderful life a bit crappy: it made their already very difficult life now insufferable.
It took me some time to come to that last realization. I was too busy kicking the wall, lamenting all of the great things I had coming down the pipe that are now cancelled. Then I realized a lot of people already had tough lives before this pandemic hit. And I’m glad I was able to make that shift in perspective. So I could stop complaining. It shows I’m growing. This pandemic actually has made me grow as a person in many ways.
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I used to turn my nose up at money
Look, the reality is that I’m fortunate to come from a family who have done well for themselves. But I’ve always resented the pressure I’ve felt to be like them—to earn like them, or to marry someone who earns like them. In a way, I’d scoff at money and wealthy individuals, and would resent financial privileges my parents tried to give me. I’d turn them down. I was “better than money.”
