Fully vaccinated, at last!

Yes, you read it right. Fully vaxxed, finally! I remember when we decided a few months back to wait for a year before we decide to have ourselves vaccinated. We wanted to observe and see the results first from the vaccinated individuals as there are a lot of opinions, reviews, and hearsays on the side and adverse effects of the vaccines. But then a few months back as well, we were able to watch an update on the vaccination rates in several countries and saw its effect on their people. We saw that they were able to dine together, gather as a family, to name a few. Wow! I must admit it was able to convince us a lot, my husband and I, to say yes to vaccination.

A few months later, three of us in the family had Covid. We weren't vaccinated yet that time. And so as any Covid positive person would do or would be instructed to do, we had ourselves quarantined at home. We just stayed home for 19 days. 19 terrible days. Now, how did we feel the whole time we went under quarantine? I am a first-time mom and my husband and I have a baby who was turning 7 months that time. My baby had symptoms same as mine but we couldn't confirm if he was infected because swab tests weren't done on babies back then. My husband tested negative for Covid. So what happened? I was isolated. Same with my mom and my uncle who were positive as well. My uncle quarantined alone in my grandma's vacant house, my mom stayed in our first floor, and I stayed in our second floor, in the living room. My husband and baby stayed in our bedroom. You might be thinking, "why didn't she isolate in the bedroom?" Well, we had our air conditioner in the bedroom and our baby needed it more and as you know, children's welfare always came first, right?

Do you now have an idea how I felt at that time I was isolated for 19 days? I felt so down. That was very depressing. I was crying every single day in the first week of our quarantine. The so-near-yet-so-far feeling was killing me. It was killing me every single day. I could see my son through the window but I couldn't come near him. We couldn't even open the windows so I could touch him. That was so difficult. No touch at all. I couldn't hold my son, I couldn't carry him, I couldn't hug him, literally no touching my son at all. All we did was look at each other through the window and make a video call. I was alive but I was dying inside.

Having experienced all those things, we thought we already had enough reasons to have ourselves vaccinated. One, the update on the vaccination rates that we were able to watch. Two, our Covid experience itself, and three, more and more variants are coming out some are even known to strongly attack the children who still don't have the chance to receive Covid vaccines. We have a baby less than a year old and we couldn't risk the life of our precious one. So after our quarantine, we slowly put our lives back together. And as soon as we had the chance to be vaccinated, we immediately took advantage of that chance. We received our first dose on September 2nd and the second dose last September 30th. Now we feel more secure. We believe we made the right decision. We know it's no guarantee that we will never ever have Covid anymore but because we have our vaccine now, we know we can trust that there's little chance now to be infected again. And just in case we get the virus again, the symptoms won't be severe.

Living at this time of pandemic is not easy. I got pregnant in this period and it was very difficult. I gave birth in this period and it still is difficult. We were once victims of Covid already and the trauma still remains. We are raising our child and the virus is still here. Sometimes you want to ask, "Will this still ever end? Or we really just have to bear with the new normal and wait until the new world comes?" I often ask myself, "Will my son still ever have the chance to even go to the mall or beach or the mountains? Experience and appreciate nature?" I feel so sorry for the children of this generation they have to be raised getting used to just staying home not seeing a lot of people and not seeing how wonderful our mother nature is. I feel so sorry for them not having the chance to go to the park and play with other kids. Well, I know they can. We can let them. But this is not the time to be complacent. If we love our children, we won't be too confident that everyone and everything and every place is safe. Right now, the safest place is our home. And if we want to help flatten the curve, let's meditate and observe. Listen to the authorities. Be cautious. See how vaccination helps. Pray that you can have a wise decision. Get vaccinated if you think you need to. We just did. And we're happy.