How do significant life events or the passage of time influence your perspective on life?

🖤 When Time Stopped: How the Pandemic Changed My Perspective on Life

By Lady Flava

They say time changes everything—but some moments in life don’t just change you…

They crack you open.

They demand reflection.

They force you to see what’s real and what’s just noise.

For me, it was the pandemic.

**COVID-19 became a marker in my story—**a line drawn between the life I had and the life I knew I had to build moving forward.

At the time, I was working in a rehabilitation hospital as the staffing coordinator.

That meant long hours… critical coverage… and being on the frontlines in ways people on the outside couldn’t even imagine.

I watched family members stand outside windows, waving at loved ones they weren’t allowed to touch.

I saw patients leave this world in black body bags.

I wore face shields, gowns, and gloves so often that I forgot what it felt like to breathe freely.

There was no “off” switch. No outlet.

Just work. Survive. Repeat.

Then I got COVID.

And shortly after, a lump was found in my breast.

That was the moment time really slowed down.

Not because the world stopped—but because I finally did.

🌿 Alone time became sacred time.

I started asking myself:

What do I value? Who am I when everything is stripped away? What don’t I like about myself? And what… is actually awesome about me?

The silence taught me things the noise never could.

I found my why.

I prepared to move back home.

I started having different conversations—with coworkers, with family, and most importantly, with myself.

💫 The passage of time didn’t just shape me—it refined me.

It showed me what really matters.

It helped me release what didn’t serve me.

And it reminded me that even in isolation, I was not alone.

Sometimes it takes the world shutting down to finally hear your own soul whisper:

“You’re allowed to evolve.”

“You’re allowed to start again.”

“You’re allowed to live differently now.”

And I am.