Dear COVID-19,
I hate you for taking so many lives, with more than 300,000 lives lost to date. Even for those of us who are still alive, you took away almost 6 months of our time on earth (and possibly even more). You took away our 2020.
My daily job is helping my husband at his hairdressing salon, handling all the admin stuff. I could remember the days leading up to the circuit breaker, when the government started implementing the safe distancing measures one by one and we had to keep up with the changes every single day or risk getting charged. It was tough searching for the necessary items like masks, thermometers, sanitisers, etc., especially when the whole of Singapore was looking for the same items too. Every other day, there were spot checks by people from the government, making sure we followed every measure on their checklist.
Then came the day we all dreaded. Our government decided hairdressing salons had to close. As being a hairdresser basically requires meeting and interacting with customers, there is totally no way to WFH. So during the circuit breaker, my husband changed from being a top hairstylist to a full-time gamer. *shrugs* I, on the other hand, have been trying to learn some new digital skills to help with the marketing aspect of our salon. At the same time, catch up on all the Netflix series that I never had the time to binge-watch. Being an introvert, circuit breaker is nothing to me. I secretly love it. Haha. I refuse to let you create so much negativity in my life.
As for the workaholic husband, this has been a very difficult time for him. He doesn’t say much but it is so bad that his eczema is showing up. He is allergic to not being able to work! All his plans to expand the business have to be put on hold just because of you.
We hope life can ease back to normal soon after the circuit breaker is lifted. In fact, we have been receiving many messages from our customers planning ahead for their hair appointments and we are actively arranging time slots for them. Very grateful for their continuous support for our craft even in tough times. I feel that there is so much more support for local business from the community now. We have this new thing called #SGUnited, and really, I feel very proud to be a Singaporean now more than ever because I really see unity amongst us to fight against you.
So you see, COVID-19, you may be a monster boss virus, but we are resilient and will always be thinking of ways to not let you ruin our lives. Your existence only made us stronger.