Why Did I Write This Book
Why did I write this book (That’s me on the far left)?
The year 2020 was amazingly confusing. And stressful. And plagued, if you’ll pardon the pun, by continuously unexpected changes that left individuals across the country feeling like they had no control over their present or their future.
“You have to keep your children home and help them through their studies via distance learning. You also can’t come to work, so you need to figure out how to do your job without being physically present. You also can’t complain about these things because it’s for the safety of the world!”
Suddenly, we were all stressed out, trying to learn new ways of life, new priorities, and new ways of looking at the world. Sadly, I wasn’t the only one facing increased stress and situations I didn’t understand, everybody was similarly stressed and didn’t know what the script was.
On top of that, social distancing requirements made many of us feel like we were islands instead of parts of a nation.
The isolation made many people begin to feel angry and upset about the changes that were required in their lives, and many found it easier to believe that the virus was a hoax. Why should we trust mainstream media to be telling the truth about a virus killing millions when we have seen so much bias from the television?
Well, I can’t tell you that mainstream media doesn’t have bias, but I can give you first-hand information about what occurred in New York during 2020.
Many people in the United States wonder if the reports of the virus weren’t exaggerated. How bad was the virus truly at its worst? Were the shutdowns, isolation requirements, and stimulus packages in any way justified? Was it really just a bad flu virus?
You may not trust what you have heard about the virus from others, but Gallup polls state that nurses are the most trusted profession in the US (79-85% of you apparently think that we are trustworthy!) and so hopefully, most of you will trust that I’m not lying to you (I promise I’m not). If it helps, I’m also a father, a husband, and an officer in the US Army (if any of those make you trust me less, please ignore them, and just remember the other aspects that make you trust me more).
My views may disagree with what you have read or heard in the past, but they are an accurate representation of my experience, and I hope that they will help people to understand why decisions might have been made.
I kept copious notes during my activated time, and I interviewed several of my coworkers both during and after the pandemic activation. When I started putting the notes into a narrative form, it helped me to make some sense of what I had been through. It helped me to put the experiences in perspective, and it helped me to sort out when I was reacting because of what I felt instead of what was true.
It is my hope that reading these experiences will help others to come to peace with their experiences. Considering that I work in an Intensive Care Unit and was present at the densest hot-spot of the virus, it is likely that my experiences are different from most other Americans, but I hope that they will help others to make sense of the past several years as it has me.
