Abstract:

My covid vaccine experience.

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Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels

In early April 2021 I drove 2.5 hours to a remote county somewhere in Maryland I had never heard of to receive my first covid vaccination.  I waited about two hours in several lines, carefully organized by national guard troops and nurses and supervisors.  It was an immense operation, and although all 45 individual “shot in the arm” stations were not utilized that day, I could not believe how professional and patient everyone was behaving.

Perhaps after four years of Pleistocene Epoch politics I had lost some hope that we could ever accomplish much as a nation again.

As I sat waiting for my 15 minutes to expire (for those unvaccinated, they ask you to wait just in case you have a reaction to the vaccine), I gave myself permission to be happy, to breathe a sigh of relief.  Pleased that in three weeks time I would return to this same place for my second dose of this wonderful new technology that will save millions now and perhaps billions later. (For those who read books, check out Walter Isaacson’s The Code Breaker to learn more about the science.)

And when I returned . . . omg, America can innovate!

Instead of waiting two hours, it took 5 minutes.  I am not kidding, five minutes from the time I parked to the time the nurse gave me my second dose.  FIVE MINUTES!

I am not some rah rah rah, “America is number 1 kinda guy”.  I certainly grew up that way, part of an immigrant family proud to call America home, people who felt and feel American and Italian . . . both, and with not a hint of a conflict of interest, thank you very much.

I left my country at the age of 20 and spent ten of the next twenty years living in a variety of other nations.  I loved all of them.  They each had a unique culture to learn from and I enjoyed comparing and contrasting their “ways” with ours.  The one common feature I missed in all those places . . . our love of making something better, of not accepting that just because it was always done one way, it must always remain that way.  As a totally gay and out man, I am living proof that America gets better in fits and starts.  Too late for many, yes I know, I am one of the lucky ones.

But I digress . . .

After the nurse carefully places the bandaid on my shoulder (for the unvaccinated and wary, I HATE needles, I grew up with a crunchy 1970s mom who never took me to doctors, but this one must be super thin cause it felt no worse than the mildest of pinches), I began to walk to the 15-minute waiting area.  Then . . . tears flowed.  Like a baby, and I have been told I cried a Pacific Ocean worth of tears in my first 3 years on Earth!

And this is what I texted a good friend when she asked me to describe what I felt as I released so much emotion . . .

“I wept after my second shot, I wept for all the people who died of AIDS who may have lived if we had put in this effort for HIV, I wept for how amazing tech is at solving serious problems, how government matters, how this past year not only ripped a hole in my country I love so very much but also directly into my family. I cried tears of joy; I felt a sense of freedom to see all my friends and colleagues in DC . . . I wept and wept and wept.  I felt every positive and negative emotion available to me in 50 years in just 15 minutes, what a trip!”

Wars and pandemics change cultures faster than probably any other phenomena.  How has it changed you?  If you say it has not . . . welcome to DENIAL.  What do you plan to do with all the knowledge, all the fear, all the change?  Go back to the way you once lived?  Come on!  Create a better version of yourself, one that focuses on all of your strengths, one that reevaluates your values, and one that makes life worth living from today . . . not tomorrow, not after this summer, and not in 2022 . . . NOW!

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If you have any questions about coaching please feel free to contact me at scott@kineticcoaching.co, and remember I always offer a complimentary 30-45 minute session to prospective clients to determine if we want to work together.