6 years down after COVID-19 How did you survive that Storm??
Chapter 2:
Lessons I Learned in My Hardest Season
When the 2020 lockdown hit the world, I lost my job, my income dropped to zero, and I was completely trapped alone in a foreign country. In that dark, silent room, I learned that true survival isn't about grand achievements it is simply about keeping your sanity intact and choosing to hold the line.
Here are the 3 simple lessons that season taught me:
1. Focus only on what you can control: I couldn’t open the international airports or force companies to do the right thing. But I could control my daily routine, my attitude, and my thoughts. When the big picture is terrifying, shrink your focus to just surviving the next 24 hours.
2. Isolation is a test. Not the end: Being completely alone in a difficult season is painful, but that time is never wasted. It is the dark soil where your deepest inner strength is quietly built.
3. Your struggle creates your purpose: The moments that test you the most are the exact experiences that qualify you to inspire, help, and speak into the lives of others later. Your struggle is your credential.
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| Dubai Marina skyline during the daytime, representing expat life in the United Arab Emirates |
The Pivot Before the Storm
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| I remember sitting at my new desk thinking that the hardest days of my cross-continental relocation were firmly behind me |
After a long, brutal year of pushing through the harsh manual labor of the mechanic shop, I had finally managed to pivot. Anyone who has moved to the Gulf knows how difficult it is to break out of your first job, but I did it. I resigned from the grease and the heat and transitioned into a customer service role. |
It felt like a massive step forward. It was a cleaner environment, an air-conditioned space, a chance to communicate professionally, and a clear sign that my trajectory in the United Arab Emirates was finally aligning with my dreams. I was beginning to breathe a little easier. I remember sitting at my new desk thinking that the hardest days of my cross-continental relocation were firmly behind me. I thought I had paid my dues.
Then, the year 2020 altered human history
The COVID-19 pandemic hit the globe like a sudden tidal wave, breaking advanced economies, sealing international borders, and shutting down societies overnight. For millions of people worldwide, it meant a comfortable transition to working from home.
But for me, and for countless other foreign workers across the Gulf, it meant something far more sinister: an immediate, terrifying termination of employment.
When the economic pressure hit, most companies could not handle the strain. They did not try to save their staff. They simply folded, closed their doors, and laid off their workforce without a second thought.
The Reality of the Gulf Job Trap
truly understand the horror of losing a job in the UAE during a crisis, you have to understand how the system works behind the scenes. Anyone who has lived and worked in the region knows exactly what certain companies do. They hire you under one title, but they make you do the work of three different people despite what the government re doing to stop such intimidations from employees, they still find a to exploit labor rules and make do job of 3 people.
Before my layout changed, my daily reality was a mix of being a customer service agent, an office boy, and a heavy-duty mechanic assistant all at the same time. One minute you are handling professional data, and the next minute you are carrying heavy machinery parts, cleaning the workshop floor, and running errands like an underpaid assistant. They squeeze every drop of labor out of you.
When the lockdown happened, these companies used the global panic as a perfect excuse to dump their workers. They didn't care where you would sleep. They didn't care what you would eat. They just handed out termination letters, and left thousands of human beings stranded without their hard-earned settlement pay.
The Day the Floor Dropped Out
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| I found myself sitting in a small, cramped room... realizing that I was entirely on my own |
Losing a job is a heavy blow under any circumstances. But losing a job in a country where your legal right to exist is directly tied to your visa, at a time when global aviation has completely ceased to function, is a psychological prison.
There were no flights home to West Africa. There were no flights anywhere in the world. The airports were ghost towns, the hot streets of Dubai were under strict 24-hour lockdowns, and my income had instantly dropped to absolute zero.
I was completely marooned
I found myself sitting in a small, cramped room, watching the news turn more ominous by the hour, realizing that I was entirely on my own. The few friends I had made along the way were fighting their own private battles for survival. Everyone was scrambling to figure out how to pay rent or secure a single bag of rice.
True isolation isn't just about being physically alone in a room. It is the absolute absence of predictability. It is waking up at 3:00 AM with a cold sweat, staring at the ceiling, wondering how long your remaining savings will last when you cannot leave the house, cannot legalise your status, and cannot fly home.
The mental landscape of that lockdown was a battlefield of compounding anxieties. If I got sick, who would know? If I ran out of food, what was the backup plan? There was no backup plan. I was ground zero personified.
The Daily Choice: Panic or Discipline
When you are stripped of your routine, your job, your income, and your basic social interactions, you are left completely alone with your thoughts. That is when the masks come off. That is when you find out who you truly are under the surface.
In those dark, silent weeks of isolation, I realized I had two choices: I could let the panic consume me, or I could build a mental fortress to survive the siege.
I chose the fortress
I had to learn how to ration not just my physical food, but my emotional energy. I limited my intake of catastrophic news and social media panic.
I forced myself to move, to read, to meditate, and to maintain a strict internal schedule even when the external world had lost all its form.
Survival during that dark period didn't look like grand achievements or building a business.
It looked like making it to the end of the day with my sanity intact, counting my remaining currency, calculating the exact cost of a loaf of bread, and choosing to believe tomorrow would bring a shift, even when there was zero evidence to support it.
Holding the Line to the Breakthrough
Survival isn't pretty. It doesn't look like an inspirational quote on an Instagram feed. It is gritty, ugly, and terrifying. But human resilience is an incredible force.
Slowly, as the world began to cautiously patch itself back together, the hiring markets in the UAE began to flicker back to life. After a grueling, testing year of holding the line through sheer willpower and the support of the small community of friends I had found, an unexpected opportunity opened up.
I was hired again. I stepped back into the workforce, deeply battered by the experience, but possessing a profound new realization: I was unbreakable.
What My Lockdown Means for Your Hardest Seasons
If you are currently experiencing your own personal version of a lockdown, whether it’s an economic struggle, a period of deep loneliness, or a feeling of being completely stuck in a situation you cannot control, I need you to hear me clearly:
1. Isolation is a crucible, not a graveyard. The time you spend alone is not wasted time unless you abandon yourself. It is the dark soil where your inner strength is distilled.
2. Control what is within your perimeter. I couldn't open the airports. I couldn't force companies to stop exploiting workers. But I could control my attitude, my self-talk, and my daily actions. When the big picture is terrifying, shrink your focus to the next 24 hours.
3. The currency of true friendship matters. Never underestimate the value of the few genuine people who check on you when you have absolutely nothing to offer but your mutual struggle.
My words of encouragement to you the reader:
The moments that test you the most are the exact moments that qualify you to speak into the lives of others. If I had never been stuck, alone, and jobless in the UAE during a global crisis, forced to do the labor of an office boy and a mechanic assistant, I would never have developed the deep empathy and inner power required to build this platform.
Your current struggle is your credential for your future impact. Do not give up on your story while you are still in the middle of the darkest chapter. Hold your ground. Your breakthrough is coming.
My ultimate takeaway for you reading this now!
It is not like tough days won't come again and i don't wish for that. But if I could survive that ultimate nightmare completely alone, I know I can face anything. Whatever the future throws at me, I will conquer it triumphantly.
This dark chapter didn't break me it proved that I am unbreakable. Your current struggle is just the middle of your story. Hold your ground, because your breakthrough is coming.
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⏱️ Coming Next: Chapter 3
Get ready for Chapter 3: Love in the Cloud, The Emotional Toll of Cross-Border Relationships.
Next, I am opening up about a completely different kind of test. Discover what happens when a digital spark across a tiny glowing screen turns into a life changing love story.
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