The Feeling, The Virus is Growing
This next journal features my thoughts and feelings as the cornivirus was really starting to affect United States. I was traveling Lima alone with plans to go to Cusco and Columbia.
March 13th 2020
As I woke up I was in a getter mood ready to start my day, I knew I needed to be productive in the morning so I could while hitting my flight to Cusco.
As mid morning came around I felt this darkness come over me. I just felt irritated and ruffled. I couldn’t quite put my finger on why, but my mood had changed. It was like smelling a bad smell the closer I got to that flight the worse I felt. Once I boarded the bus to the airport I began to get this pit in my stomach.
I knew from that moment something was off. Being alone and far from home I was left with a choice: keep traveling or turn around.
I decided to skip my flight to Cusco. The next hour received information from the United States Embassy that the borders could close without warning. (Which they did two days later.)
I knew it was time to leave given the circumstances. I booked the first flight I could back, it was 8 hours away . As I sat in the airport for next few hours the energy became very weary with many people panicking on how they would return to their homeland. Flights were canceling, tickets were skyrocketing, and the impact of this virus was starting to weigh on everyone. My heart ached for all the people I met along the way many losing money, flights, and dreams.
I had dreamed of my day to be a nomad it was my goal for 3 years. Then sure enough it comes and life smacks me in the face.
I felt defeated, heart broken, and tramped. This virus had paused my life this virus was now taking over.
March 18th 2020
The next few days things became more and more like a bad dream. Little did I know that my life and everyone else’s lives would change forever. One by one the rules came down it was like a glass box was closing in on all of us. Our simple freedoms were gone.
I felt like a prisoner I felt like opportunity had gone out the window. I wondered what I do for the next month I wondered how it would effect my family. Things were going to be different for a while. I was starting to get caught up in it and was evening hitting a personal breaking point, but then something happened.
Then I found this podcast and my attitude changed.
After that I was grateful for my health, my family, friends and my job. Though the carpet had been ripped from under me, I found hope. Realizing that is always hope in everything. When the gates of opportunity are open, I told myself I would be ready.
In that moment I decided to run towards my personal dreams and seeked to do things I never had the “time” to do. These months of isolation were going to be my time of growth. Once I was able to get my mind to start focusing on gratitude and purpose. It was like a candle was lit inside me the flame growing bigger as I become more in touch with personal goals.
These times are hard and I truly morn for all the lives lost by this terrible virus my thoughts go out to you. For anyone out there who is still struggling to accept this devastating pandemic or feels defeated in life I challenge you to be inspired. I challenge you to find that thing you have always wanted to do and treat this time as awakening .
“Refuse to the let the world corrupt you. “
-Jame 1:27
For more on my experience as a solo traveler in Peru click here.
