Kadiatu’s Story
It’s crazy because I never thought that I would have ended my final years of university so abruptly, not to mention due to a global pandemic! Here I was prepping for my GRADUATION. I was thinking of all the ways I was going to celebrate this honour of being the first person in my family to graduate from university. My friends and I also had planned a Bahamas for vacation In my last few days of undergrad, the world as I knew it completely shifted. At first it was subtle, with uncertainty about the near future and questions about what was going on in other parts of the world. Then it hit close to home when someone from our city was infected by the virus. Next thing I knew classes were being cancelled, and we were entering a province-wide quarantine.
Due to the almost two-year lockdown, I had to learn how to just stop and do nothing. Prior to the pandemic, I was always on go mode. It was nice being able to have nothing to do. I had no tests to study for, no commitments to tend to, and most importantly I was able to sleep anytime I wanted to. This was very rare for me. I even picked up journaling and reading again. It was all great until it wasn’t. As the lockdown continued, I had lots of time to be lost in my own thoughts. Some days I was determined to try and revamp myself or advance my career, while other days I felt like a failure who was not where she needed to be in life. Not going to lie, depression started kicking in and Alhamdulilah I am so grateful to have joined the Community Healing Project (CHP) which helped me to really deal with my past traumas and start my healing journey. Often, we don’t even know what’s causing our mental health issues until we are forced to reflect on our past. It’s scary but worth it for the peace of mind it brought me later.
I am currently writing this in Barcelona, Spain. Last year, if you had told me I would be travelling around Europe with my bestie, living my absolute best life, I would not have believed it. This year I made a promise to myself that I was going to travel more, and I am doing just that! Alhamdulillah always, because everything really does happen for a reason. Despite the barriers and hardships, I have faced, there is always something to be happy and grateful for. Every year I learn something new about myself. The biggest thing I learned this year is that I am capable no matter what anyone says, or how much I doubt myself. I always rise above whatever challenge I am faced with and quite honestly, I love that for myself. It took a while to get here but I would not have it any other way.