Steemit Engagement Challenge Season8 Week1: My learning during the pandemic

Hello dear friends and members of STEEMIT HEALTH community. I hope everyone here is fine and is enjoying life to full. The first week of SEC Season 8 has been started today. The topic of the first challenge here is very interesting because it let us know what everyone goes through in last Covid pandemic. It also let us learn lessons from different participant's posts.

I have not seen such topic before on Steemit that is another reason of it's importance. The Covid Pandemic affected people in both ways positive and negative depending on lifestyle. That is why I said it is interesting as we will learn different people's views on it. The topic of the challenge is "My learning during the pandemic". So let's start!

The Covid-19 was the deadly virus that took lives of more than 6.78 million people from around the world. The stats of covid cases and deaths are on Google here. Two of my relatives died with Covid and one was in my hands at hospital. I was with my uncle and he died right infront of my eyes.

Due to sudden deaths and in many cases, the patient was in extreme pain, it dishearted all of us. I still remember, whenever I turned on TV or log in to social media accounts, I saw 60-70% of the posts of deaths and covid cases and request prayers for their loved ones.

The Covid pandemic has given us a lot of lessons and what lesson I learn is we shouldn't take life for granted. We must take care of our family and loved ones as much as we can before any pandemic take them away from us. Second lesson I learned is to take safety measures as much as possible including gloves, face mask, and sanitizer.

Another lesson I learned is to stay healthy and eat good healthy vegetables and fruits. I have seen such people who were really strong inside and they fight with pandemic even after they got infected. The reason is their immune system was so strong that infection did almost nothing to them. So I think we must focus on our health first.

Unfortunately yes, I lost 3 of my relatives during pandemic but one of them was not due to Covid. My Father's Sister's Husband (My Uncle) got infected really badly. I don't know how to describe it here. My father, cousin, and I took him to hospital 1 day before his death because he was in very bad condition. His lungs were highly infected and he was almost unable to breath.

Before death, my uncle was not able to move even a single inch of his fingers. His eyes stayed opened and he didn't blinked for more than 10 minutes. I prayed for him at that moment and then I go outside of room because it was really hard to sit there and see him dying.

The second death was of my Father's sister (the wife of my uncle). She got infected with Covid but we got her vaccinated at right time and she recovered from Covid. But after 9-10 months, as covid affected her lungs and her backbone discs was not in place, she died 9-10 months after my uncle's (his husband) death.

During pandemic, the most difficult moment was when 3 of my relatives died. When my uncle died with Covid, my father's elder brother died right after one week. It was also a big lose for my family. Third death was of my Father's Sister (my Phopho) after 9-10 months. All of three deaths and all within 10 months was shocking and difficult time for all of my family and relatives.

I am a freelancer and we all know how badly the Covid affected online and offline businesses. I also got affected with it and it was really difficult time for me. I don't know whether my clients are alive or not but most of them didn't come online for more than a year and some for 2-3 years. I was earning a lot and during and after pandemic, my earnings declined and now has almost stopped in freelancing.

As my earnings were declined, I switch to multiple source of incomes. I suggest everyone not to rely on single income source because it can be cut off anytime. So try to do multiple jobs, a single down will not affect much on you financially.

Honestly speaking, I am not valuing my life that much even I know how badly Covid pandemic affected lives. But still I am giving my health more important than before but not that much needed to be given. If I talk about safety checks, I most of the times wear mask and will continue wearing mask whenever I go outside for long period of time.

I am not using sanitizer after coming home but my good habit is that I wash my hands like 10-15 times a day specially when I come home from outside. No matter I shake hand with anyone, I wash my hands and 3-5 times face in a day.

I am admitting here that I am not fully taking care of my health but I can promise myself that will improve myself and will take special care of myself and my family from now. Because the death of my relatives is still infront of my eyes and I don't want to die like that. So I will take care of my health from now on.

If I look at the history then there is no much pandemic that affected businesses in such a way than Covid-19 did. It negatively affected 70% of the businesses in the world in my opinion. If I talk about myself, then it negatively affected my finances and I stayed upset for many days because of no orders getting on Fiverr.

Before Covid, I was earning around $200-$300 a month and it was enough for me as I started my earning career few months before. As my earnings dropped to $50 per month and even $10-20 per month, I decided to change my source of income.

Then I talked with my friends and we three started work of SEO through which we were making more than 1 Lacs PKR a month and that was around $600 at that time. For many months, we earned nearly 2 Lacs PKR per month and that was around $800-$900. But due to some issues in our website and other personal, our earnings started declining.

For now, I am not earning that much but still by the grace of Allah Almighty, I am covering my expenses and have much saving that I can survive for more than 1 year. Me and my friends again decided to switch to multiple income sources and we are planning to do it within 2 months. We have bought 2 websites and will start SEO soon after completing articles first. So now I am focusing on creating multiple source of incomes.

This is all from me for the "Steemit Engagement Challenge Season8 Week1: My learning during the pandemic". I invite @samminator, @preye2, @steemdoctor1, @simonnwigwe, @preye2, @lavanyalakshman, and @theentertainer to participate in this contest and share their lessons learned during pandemic.