Friday Fun: What is the greatest gift for you from our current reality in a covid pandemic?

Peter Jessen

Hello and Happy Friday from Land O' Lakes, Florida, USA!

Today's Friday Fun is a topic about the balance in the universe - every negative has a positive and every positive has a negative. What is the greatest gift for you from our current reality in a covid-19 pandemic?

While many of us may have lost someone to the disease (my mother-in-law lost a close friend, as did my cousin) we have all gained as well, if we are willing to look for the "silver lining."

For me some of the gifts this pandemic has bestowed on me are:

• a greater appreciation for how precious life is,
• more time with my wife and daughter (and extended family),
• working from home instead of being on a plane every other week,
• and probably most significant is deciding to build two new homes across the street from each other - one for my family and in-laws and the other for my 82-year old mother - so we can spend as much time together as possible in her remaining years.

And yes, there are balancing downsides to all of the above. :-)

So what are your covid-19 pandemic gifts?

Jimmy Seddon

This is a great topic @Peter Jessen!  I like the concept of looking for the positives that have come from the situation we are in.

I think the most important thing at the moment for me is the fact that my family and I have been able to remain safe and healthy this entire time.

On a personal level, I hate commuting, I normally have a 45 minute drive to and from work every day.  Working from home has given me the opportunity to do other things like walking the dog first thing in the morning.

My son is back in daycare and working remotely allows me to be at home to help assist in getting him ready and being able to be a part of dropping him off and picking him up from daycare which before COVID-19 my wife had to do by herself.

I'm not an overly outgoing and social person, contrary to how I may act on the Atlassian Online Community, but I'm much more open in virtual means, and as many people have been forced into this situation, I actually interacted with some friends virtually more regularly than ever before.

While there are a great many things that have not been good, you are correct there are definitely some silver linings!