Ever since the Coronavirus came to the Netherlands at the beginning of 2020, it has forced people and businesses to adapt. A lot. On December 15, 2020, the Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, and the Dutch Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport, Hugo de Jonge, announced that The Netherlands was going into a second lockdown as the one that we had previously in the spring of 2020. It was said that the lockdown would be until January 19, 2021 but unfortunately, the lockdown is still happening.

As a consequence of this lockdown, a lot of people in large cities such as Amsterdam, Utrecht, Eindhoven and Groningen, were  protesting, especially in large groups. This was against the rules protecting against COVID 19, so the police were forced to use tear gas and water pumps to get the protesters to disperse.

All public places, except for supermarkets, are closed. This does create a longing for interacting with other people but of course everybody has to adhere to the regulations, and this requires a lot of courage from people. I do try to comply, but sometimes like everybody else, there comes a breaking point when you cannot handle it anymore. Prior to the lockdown in 2020, I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder, or ADD for short. This diagnosis has really shocked me, and I was at a loss as to what to do. For a long time, I couldn’t accept that I had ADD and in my mind, in my opinion everything was normal but a constant reminder of having ADD was having to talk about it to a professional. I had to adapt my study, my study schedule, and my exams so that I felt more and more comfortable with myself.

I had, with the help of a professional, to re-train my mind. For example, I have had to learn that if something wrong was done by someone else, it wasn’t my fault, because I am not responsible for how another person lives. I am only responsible about how I live my  life. And other easy things like that. And all of this while a pandemic was going on. If this is not courage, I don’t know what is.

Mira Geels

Read the enrite World Magazine Sprinf 2021 edition here