2020 Quarantine Diary

It’s been a while since I last posted here in my blog, maybe because I was too busy, or I have other priorities than writing my thoughts here and sharing it to you, my dear reader.

Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels.com

However, the universe has a way of saying, “Stop and Chill”. Last March 17, our Philippine government has declared an Enhanced Community Quarantine, generally a lock down, to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. All schools closed, only essential business remain open, and travel is restricted, whether by air, land or sea. The country was gripped with shock and fear as the infections of the virus continuously rise, and the normal daily routine stopped. Not only has this happened in the Philippines, but all over the world. Most governments have guidelines and strategies in place to prevent the spread of the virus, but as this is unexpected, most people were caught off-guard. Everyone has to stay home, practice sanitary hygiene and hand washing, and most especially, keep themselves protected, so as to help the community, rather, the whole country, in its fight against the coronavirus.

So what did I do during this time? Like most Filipinos, I stayed home. For the first month, I was lucky enough to be able to work from home and get paid. However, since we are from the publishing industry with schools as our client, the inevitable has happened. Our company has to tighten the budget to avoid layoffs for its employees. Most employees went on a NO WORK NO PAY setup, only the managers and the officers were on skeleton workforce. We are still part of the company, but we are on floating status.

There were uncertainties and this season has allowed me to reflect on my goals, my career, my life. For sure, everyone will become a different person after this pandemic, the only question is, will I emerge for the better or for the worse?

I chose to become better even if the situation is not. Luckily, I got accepted into Code In Place, an experimental online course offered by Stanford University for free to learn the basics of programming and Python. The universe has not let me down. I have something to work on while everything is out of control.

The Code in Place online course lasted for 5 weeks, mostly 6 weeks since we have a final project to work on. During this time, I have learned about programming basics, and Python. I really enjoyed this class as there are a lot of students I can ask questions if ever I get stuck with an assignment, and a class section that feels right like college. Even before, I already dreamt of becoming a web developer, or software engineer, but the universe has other plans. I am loving my coding experience and in my next posts, I will be documenting my progress here in my blog as I start my journey to becoming a web developer. 🙂

For now, the situation may be uncertain for many of us — you or your loved one has been affected greatly by this pandemic, either your business has closed down, you were laid off, you got the virus, or you have experienced difficulty during this pandemic, I feel you. Know that you are not alone. Let us choose to become better one day at a time.