The solution

 This Covid-19 nonsense is really getting out of hand. For starters, it’s been here for a year now. I remember this time last year, I was in Africa. What a happy time. In the most beautiful continent in the world, without a care in the world.

I came back to this Covid nightmare. It’s been one sort of lockdown nightmare after another, with no end in sight. I became so disillusioned and depressed I took to gardening. Gardening! Of all things. I now want to give up the hobby but my plants, of course, cannot know this. I am convinced they have feelings. The ones I talk to grow better than the ones I ignore. I talked to them because I was isolated and bored. And now I have no heart to “give up” because I don’t want them to wither and die. We have a bond, my plants and I.

The economy crashed. I blame the government. Not just our government, but the governments the world over. I think we left too much science to get in the way of things. Science is good. I am a believer in science. But just like you can’t leave wars to generals, you can’t leave pandemics to scientists. But that is just what the world did. And ordinary (non-scientist) humans suffer for it.

I accepted the only job available. I will be honest. It was a job I coveted since I graduated. But then, I joined the “real world” and saw “real money”. And now, to go back to this job I once coveted, with a much lesser pay than what I was used to, seemed contrary to all my skill and experience that I had gained for the past 20 years. And yet, it was the only job opportunity available. Because of Covid. Because the economy was bad. Because I was qualified for this particular job. Because I had nothing better. Because a part of me still coveted it. Because the part of me that wanted more pay, couldn’t find anything better. Because it was meant to be (?).

The move was bigger than I thought. Hitherto I had only been in the private sector. Now I am in the public sector. Hitherto I had been in the industry. Now I am in protective custody. I never knew until today what a huge gap that was. Today I had my first formal meeting in my new job. It was a disaster for me. They may as well be speaking Greek. Or Damara. Or Sanskrit. I didn’t understand 90% of what was said, including something about me. This is not good. Certainly not ideal.

Because I was more confused and stressed after the meeting than ever before, I did the only appropriate thing after the meeting. I opened a can of beer. 5 cans later, I have no idea what I was so confused and stressed about.