We all have that one person in our lives that we do not trust behind the wheel; either they drive too fast, or they are just really bad drivers. Sometimes, they can’t navigate well, or you feel like they would push you off a cliff.
For me, that’s my college best friend, Rea. To give you a picture of how bad she is at driving, for her 18th birthday, her parents bought her a new car. She was ecstatic. Three days later, Rea calls me, and she says, “Dude, I dented my car.” Was I surprised? Absolutely not, but did I hope for the best? Of course! I know that she is a big adrenaline junkie, and speed is her drug of choice.
This is how I see COVID-19 – It’s like me being in the passenger seat of Rea’s car, just anxiously sitting there, not knowing if, in the next few seconds, I’d be breathing my last breath or if, in the blink of an eye, I’m in the hospital, alone.
With everything that is happening in the world today, I sit here today, writing as if I’m about to go speeding with Rea. Anxiety builds up in me as the moments go by. I cannot imagine how difficult it must be for the families of COVID-19 patients, not being able to see them and support them or even just let them know that you are there and that you care.
Probably somewhere out in the big evil world, a daughter is wondering why daddy hasn’t come home yet, a mother going mad thinking about her son, a grandparent praying that they get to see their grandchild grow up and have a family of their own.
Scary things are happening during this pandemic, and I do not just mean the virus. While celebrities post on their stories about how easy it is to stay home and how everyone should shut their mouths and focus on being productive, some people are stuck in their houses, not being able to escape their hell.
In some countries like the Philippines, rape and domestic violence rates have gone up. More and more countries around the world are going through an economic breakdown. This pandemic has revealed which states have the best and the worst governments, and I hope that the people see that this is not what they deserve from their government.
Again, you find yourself stuck in that passenger seat watching your friend push harder and harder on that pedal, going from zero to a hundred in a matter of second or maybe it’s you behind that wheel, perhaps you find yourself becoming a virus which slowly kills and drains the life of anyone you come in contact with? Have you ever thought about how you could let others heal and be healed yourself?
One better thing has come from this pandemic: the Earth is finally taking a break from humans, speeding through the resources and the beauty of the world. One of my realizations during this lockdown is that maybe we are the virus, and we’re slowly killing our home. Maybe Mother Nature decides to fight back so that she can take a few moments to breathe and heal.
Right now, the world is in the passenger seat, and that lousy driver? That’s COVID-19. Right now, what we can do is put our seatbelts on and pray that at the end of this long drive, the world learns from all the past mistakes we’ve made, and when we get back on track, we learn to live life like the next second is our last. It’s time to appreciate the people we love and care for; you’ll never know when that car crash happens.