5.9.22

Part 2: COVID (January 2020- August 2020)

COVID really fucked up a lot of things. I had started working at Whole Foods in the later part of 2019 so when covid popped up in Jan/Feb of 2020, I vividly remember thinking that I was experiencing history as it was happening. Working as an "essential" grocery store employee while the whole world was trying to keep socially distanced was an interesting time. Where Rinko and I got fucked the most was due to the effect that covid had on international travel. I don't exactly remember why Rinko decided to go back to Japan but when she left she didn't come back for 6 months. We didn't know it was going to be 6 months. It was like every month we thought it was just going to be one more month but the flights would just keep extending their limited flight schedules. There were flights from Japan to Hawai'i but none were direct. Only Tokyo to LA and then LA to Hawai'i. Rinko is kind of immunocompromised so I didn't want to risk taking 2 flights and a layover, so we waited until they started the direct flights again. And ya, we didn't know that we wouldn't see each other for 6 months. Up until then, that was the longest that we had been apart. But because it was sudden and unpredictable and we couldn't really do anything about it, it was a little bit easier to deal with. 

You might be wondering, "Umm, are you still doing the original prompt or are you just talking about stuff that happened before?" IT'S ALL RELATED.

One good thing about covid was that Rinko and I got automatic A's from a low level online history class that we were both taking together. With that last A, I was ready to apply for the rad tech program. All I had to do was take this test called the A2 Test. This test was the main thing that decides if you get into the program or not so it was a fucking big deal. I needed to get as close to 100% as I could so I was studying a lot after and before work. I think I planned to take it around the end of June but what I really remember about this time was that I thought that Rinko was going to be back right after I took the test. Remember when I said that we didn't know how long Rinko was going to be gone and that we just kept rebooking flights? This was one of those times where I felt the impact of dealing with school things while being away from Rinko. I don't remember if it was either telling her I got a good grade on the test or if it was actually getting admitted into the program (I even checked my emails but those two things happened very closely to each other) but I remember telling Rinko one of those things and thinking that I would be able to see her the next week and then she told me that her flight got cancelled again. She had known prior but didn't want it to distract me from studying. I think only once or twice before in my life did I ever sink down that quickly. Like I was chained to a gigantic boulder that had just been thrown overboard a cruise ship. I was studying so much and I had wanted to see her so badly. I cried like a baby. 

Rinko would end up coming back to Hawai'i in August. I remember only having one week before I started school so we did a little staycation in Waikiki and tried to act like a normal married couple that hadn't just spent the last 6 months apart. 

We didn't know that we were going to be apart for 6 months. We tried to see each other but people weren't even driving to school or work let alone traveling internationally. It was the first year of covid so we knew there were millions of other people around the world that got fucked too. Our problem seemed minor when put into perspective. But the thing about this time in my life that I feel connects it to my experience in rad tech school was that before I even started the program I had to deal with something sudden and uncomfortable and unfair and sad and lonely and frustrating and all these other negative emotions. I thought that that would be a one time thing. Like, "Okay, Rinko was gone for a long time and there were some hard moments but we got over it." 

Knowing what I know now, I feel like that time before I actually started the program was probably the most obvious foreshadowing that I have ever experienced in my life lol. And I'll explain that in the next post. 

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