Dear COVID-19,

Normally, I begin all of my correspondence with "I hope this finds you well," but I am entirely uncertain as to how to formally begin this letter to an entity that has completely altered my life. At first, I was only upset with you. I was devastated and lost in the disruption you caused my life and the disruption you caused to the people around me, some of who I cherish most. But as I have had time to reflect and cope with these changes, I see now that maybe you only had my best interests at heart after all. So, I'll start at the beginning.

Before you made your way to my home, the sunshine state of Florida, I was a recently graduated and newly married twenty-three-year-old about to begin the greatest adventure of her life: her career. A career, I might add, that I worked incredibly hard to secure. It was my dream job in my dream role, and I had already laid the ground work for proving myself a worth-while hire. For the first time in my life, my daunting financial crisis was finally in the rearview mirror, and my future was glimmering with promise. I was excited to go to work each day and learn more about the role that I would soon specialize in. But even before you graced the world with your presence, I was wondering when the other shoe would fall. The other, as you would have it, turned out to be you, and boy, was it a heavy shoe.

Four weeks into my new role, the order was given company-wide to begin working from home. The anxiety set in almost immediately because I knew, deep down, a new hire who was generating zero profit for a Fortune 500 company would no longer prove strategic to the overall business plan. After all, our economy was (and still is) in crisis. And at the end of the day, business is business. Even I'll admit that my position was secure far longer than I initially thought it would be. Just when I thought I might make it through this, Dooms Day came, and as my second month of employment came to a close, so did my dream. One email and video conference later, I joined the hundreds of thousands of other United States citizens that were laid off. It was worse than any break-up I had ever experienced. My entire life I was told if you worked hard enough for something, you're guaranteed to get it. But COVID-19, well, you proved that sentiment wrong. And so there I was - eyes swollen, cheeks stained with a day's worth of tears, and absolutely no idea where to go from here. Did I mention how angry I was with you at the time, COVID-19? Naturally, it got worse (because doesn't it always before it gets better?).

One week later, as a result of you, my husband was laid off, too. Picture this: a newly-wed couple, both unemployed due to reasons completely beyond our control, no stimulus checks received, unemployment unapproved, and bills still coming our way. As you can imagine, the stress was nearly palpable.

But then things started to change. And along with it, my perspective. I had the free time to read again, go cycling with my husband, journaled a bit more than I previously had time to, and I even had the luxury of being able to visit my parents each weekend. Furthermore, I was presented with the opportunity to start writing articles for the Odyssey again, something I genuinely loved to do in college but no longer had time for once I started my job. And then with a flip of a few pages, a book I had long forgotten about on my bookshelf changed everything. I began reading "The Alchemist" by Paulo Cohelo and in it was the quote that helped me understand your purpose, COVID-19. The quote reads:

"And when you want something, the entire universe will conspire to help you achieve it."

You see, up until that point, I was under the impression that you were a sign from the universe that I was on the wrong path; maybe in the wrong career or in the wrong state but a sign all the same. But once I read that sentence, I knew instantly that you weren't a sign; you were a test. It was then that I decided my dream job was and never will be out of my reach because it was what I truly wanted. Because like the quote said, I now had reason to believe that the universe was working for me rather than against me. I just simply needed to try again, in all aspects of my life really. I needed to reconnect with my family, with my husband and friends, and most importantly with myself; something I simply wouldn't have been able to do had you not messed up my life a bit, COVID-19.

Although you messed up a lot of other lives, and in some more permanent ways, I don't begrudge you anymore. Because sometimes life is just comprised of nothing but challenges and opportunities. Most times, those opportunities are disguised as the challenges you're first faced with. So, thank you, COVID-19. And in fact, I do hope this letter finds you very well.

Kindest,

Erin A. Cone