How Covid-19 has influenced my life
1. Regular exercise
I began running. March 2022 will mark my 2-year anniversary as a runner. I have thought of exercise as a means to lose weight. If I gained weight, I start exercising. As soon as I reach my diet goal, I stopped exercising. Since I started running regularly, I finally realized the benefit of regular exercise regardless of my current weight. Regular exercise helps with the mind. I began looking forward to the next day for my morning run. I thank Boston, a city of runners. I couldn't have run regularly if I didn't live in a city filled with runners who motivated me every time I didn't feel like running.
2. Relocate to Korea
Being alone made me extremely lonely and difficult to sustain my mental health. When an opportunity to move to Korea appeared, I decided to relocate to my home country where my parents and my sister are living. It has been really nice to spend a lot of time with them. After 5 months in Korea, my mental health improved tremendously. I feel much more stable and capable of doing things that I couldn't imagine doing alone in America.
3. Working from home
I used to believe working from home is impossible. I used to go to work every day even if I wasn't told to do so. After working from home for 2 years, I learned a few pros and cons:
Pros are saving commuting time, managing my own schedule, not having to attend unnecessary meetings.
Cons are almost interaction with anyone if you don't have any meetings, a higher possibility of being miscommunicated with your co-workers, staying in one place for almost all day, no casual conversations.
Bottom line is that: it's not the end of the world to be working from home. People are adoptable animals. I learned to adapt to my situation and try to make the most out of it.
4. Internet shopping
My sister used to make fun of me being an 'oldie' who likes to go shopping in person. Covid forced me to an online shop and I was reluctant at first but now I know how to shop online, what to see, how to measure my size. Now, I do more online shopping than in-person shopping. It saves time and there are more choices to choose from. I still enjoy going shopping in person but online shopping isn't so bad especially if you know what you need and don't have a lot of time
5. Fashion & Beauty
Before Covid, I did not value fashion and beauty a lot. I shopped when I needed the clothes, I bought makeup from popular brands (without considering my skin type). To kill time, I started watching youtube related to fashion and beauty and it became quite fun. I slowly changed my wardrobe - purchasing more basic items, throwing away old and unflattering clothes. Hair has been my worst nightmare. I have very curly and thin hair that didn't know how to take care of it except getting a straight perm that did not flatter my face shape. While YouTubing, I found a video on how to take care of curly hair and products to use. So, I got a perm for the first time and I love it! I am also experimenting with various hair products to find the best ones for my own hair type. It's still a working process but at least I am doing something about it! Once I got interested in fashion and beauty, I begin to notice my own hair, face, and body shape which made me feel confident
6. Creative
Before Covid, I did things that were told to do. "MK please analyze this data, write this paper, attend this meeting, etc." I didn't ask a lot of questions because I didn't really have time and cared enough to ask. During Covid, I had a lot of time to think about what I am doing and where I am going. My goals and directions occupied my mind which made me realize that I had to be creative to stand out in this vast world of global health research.
"How am I going to work as an independent researcher?" "What kind of tools do I need?" All these questions led me to create this website which is the biggest product of all so far. It feels nice to be accountable for something that I created all by myself without being told what to do. I feel proud of myself to think outside of the box and do something about it.
