The Year 2020

2020 is no ordinary calendar year. This is a year that will show up in history books just like the year 1918.

Just as the year 1918 correlates with Spanish Flu, the year 2020 correlates with thousands of deaths, bankruptcies, recessions, unemployment, and political issues, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the start of the year, I was working as a Construction Project Coordinator in Melbourne, Australia. Then after a few months, I was one of the 300,000 people who have their jobs in the Construction industry in Australia. Shortly afterward, Melbourne went into strict lockdown for months which was way longer than the lockdown duration in the city of Wuhan, which was the epicenter of the virus. For months, I was unable to search for jobs so I started trading securities online to pay my monthly expenses and bills.

Staying on a graduate visa, I have just over a year left and almost half of my visa length has been wasted indoors due to the pandemic. With having nothing much to do at home, I wrote a letter to the Prime Minister of Australia, Mr. Scott Morrison, requesting for visa extension for all international students in Australia. Well, I understand it was a long shot but it was a shot worth giving. Granting it or not is on him and I have every right to try. The letter goes as follows:

I have also created a petition regarding this (http://chng.it/qvkyL6CkFc) and shared it on LinkedIn, which to my surprise received significant supporters. The link may or may not work by the time you are reading this but if it worked and if the two-year post-graduate visa is still the same, then we know Mr. Prime Minister did not hear me out.

Despite all of the hardship, I keep my mind focused and motivated. I finished numerous books during these times at home. It is a remarkable achievement for someone like me who rarely read books. I started enjoying the tranquility and peace I find when I am reading and the thought process that is happening when I am digesting what is written. Being said, the books I have been reading during these times are not novels or fiction books. The books I read are written by Donald Trump, Robert Kiyosaki, Benjamin Graham, and more. So there were a lot of digests and the experience of having a paradigm shift on things is something remarkable.

Here are some of the books I have read during the lockdown:

1. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

2. Why we want you to be rich? by Robert Kiyosaki & Donald Trump

3. The Art of the Deal by Donald Trump

4. The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham

Okay, you are probably thinking that I am a Trump supporter. I admire Donald Trump as a businessman and an investor but I have no comment regarding his political movements.

Now it's September with only three more months till the year ends. So far, I couldn't say I have achieved my annual resolutions but fair enough the whole world stopped this year. Although these are challenging circumstances, I do believe in brighter days and light at the end of this tunnel.