COVID Net Positive (#5)

Pic Credits: pixabay.com

(If you stumble upon this post, I want you to know that this is a part of my personal story. As every story has a beginning and every episode/post has a context, I believe this post makes sense to you if you start from the beginning. Click here to go to the start.)

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COVID:

I feel sorry for those who suffered directly or indirectly due to COVID. It must have been quite painful. Firstly, it didn't give us enough time, and on top of that, we were helpless. Helplessness is indeed a painful emotion.

By sheer luck, my dear family and I were less affected by it. That doesn't make us special. We merely had the good fortune not to be in the path of nature's wrath during that period. (Click here for my thoughts on nature).

COVID STREET:

I used to stay with a friend during that time. The first COVID case in Vizag happened in our vicinity. So, our street was blocked-off, and we were permitted by our company to stay at home.

 

We were happy beyond bounds because we could avoid social interactions and escape from mundane office work too. Fortunately, my company's software applications didn't work on my personal Mac. As a result, I had close to one and a half months away from the office.

LUDO:

Thanks to the internet, I had fun reuniting with my friends and family even during COVID. At one point, one of my friends initiated an online game idea (LUDO). I felt relieved and immediately gathered all my school, college, and work friends together for this game. We had group calls in the background while playing. Forming teams, pulling each other's legs, targeting someone, Wow! those were some of the best moments during COVID.

I even infected my family with this game at that time. My mom and sister became addicted to it for a while. 

But at some point in time, I realised that I might not get this leisure time again, and it would be wise to make use of it. 

GO and BLOG:

I happened to watch "Alpha GO" by Google's Deepmind on Youtube at that time and was really excited by the technology- in a game which is mainly based on intuition, a machine could defeat the best professional human player in the world. Then, I dug deep into Deepmind. Later, I downloaded and read a couple of books (partly) on the concept of machines becoming intelligent- Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom and Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil. I watched related videos in a loop for some time. I was curious about Neuralink, Tesla, Boston Dynamics and so on. I had no concrete plan in my mind then. I was just curious. 

Around the same time, I created a blog to write. I really don't know from where that thought came to my mind because I was never into writing my whole life. (I used to read books occasionally but absolutely no writing). Not only did I build a website, but I also wrote 4-5 blog posts at that time. I discovered for the first time that I could actually write something on random topics. (This writing, too, has connections with my ankle incident. Click here to know how).

GO but be PRACTICAL:

But, I realised somewhere in between, that I should be practical. Fortunately, by this time, a friend of mine had been to the USA to do Master's in Analytics, and I could see a path there. Analytics is something related to my current job as well. I thought this could be a practical step. To get some confidence on whether I could do it or not, I did some online courses, thanks to the internet and COVID.

 

Another wonderful thing that happened by the end of that same year was my sister's marriage. My brother-in-law is one of the purest people I've met in my life. Not only that, his family is lovely too. The marriage really relieved me. I thought my family is in safe hands.

 

Immediately after her marriage, I gave the GRE exam and got a reasonable score. 

Overall, quite surprisingly, apart from a little health-related hiccup(which I could overcome through diet), the year of COVID had been my most productive year. 

Though I was never COVID-positive, the net effect of COVID in my life was definitely positive.

However, after the Covid waves subsided, it suddenly became too hectic at the office for almost 3 to 4 months- there were shutdowns of many process units, and I was completely lost. I abandoned my blog, curiosity and everything.

After the shutdowns were done, one day, out of pure emotion(I could not bear it anymore), I went to a GRE consultancy to get directions for going to the USA. (I had already given GRE by that time)

I was embarrassed to learn that I hadn't given an IELTS test yet(Honestly, I didn't know that at that time). So, they asked me to give the test and wait for the Spring'22 intake. It is only then I started to learn about the colleges and Intake periods in the US. Eventually, I decided to go for Fall'22 instead of Spring'22 because I had things to settle at home as well.

Since I got some time to plan and reflect, I tried to answer the questions that were running through my mind in the background.

Am I making the right decision?

 

Is the grass greener on the other side?

 

What if life is the same even after making this change?

 

Is it better to accumulate money first by going to the Middle East (with my current experience), feel safe, and then make a change?

Then I thought it's better to understand Happiness first. I introspected, read a couple of books, and saw some videos on it. There is one book which I found interesting.

What is that book?

What did I find out?

 

I will share about it in my next blog post.