Depression and Covid

(upbeat music) - Hi guys. - Welcome back. This is the take off. I'm your host, your podcasting energy. And it's episode seven. I'm sorry I've been M.I.N. I've been a working non-stop dealing with COVID. I haven't, you know, thankfully I have not been infected with COVID, but I've been having to quarantine because I have either worked or been in contact with someone with COVID. I just, you guys might know I am a flight attendant in the United States. I travel all over and I recently worked back to back to people on each different flight at those departments for COVID. And it's been challenging having to deal with it and not being able to go see my family. I'm thanks to God and I won't be able to see my family. - Doing Christmas because I will be working right before Christmas as well. And it's been hard times for everyone, you know, very, very hard times. And the data with depression has been very stressful. People think that because we live as flight attendants such a glamorous life, which I mean, I can see that it can be appealing glamorous to some, but in reality it's not that glamour. And it's fun to an extent. During these times of quarantining of COVID, of wearing masks of people refusing to wear masks, of people not acting like animals, you know, because this is, I was about to say, people aren't acting like animals in the plane sometimes. And it's ridiculous, it's ridiculous. I'm just happy that I still have a job, but at the same time depression is creeping up, man, especially because I'm basically alone, I'm based in New York City. I'm basically all alone in my apartment. I come into my apartment to silence. There's no one here. I leave, I spend the day here, no one's here, no one's here to talk to. Yeah, I can call whatever, but it's not saying when you have that interaction on someone face to face. And it's very hard when you're basically semi-quarantine alone, because you just can't, you know, just can't get up and go see a family. My family lives in different state. I work out of a different state. And it's just been really stressful, and it's been hard for myself to be literally an extreme city, because I wasn't raised in, wasn't born and raised in New York City. I came to New York City when I first started this job, and I honestly was gonna transfer out, but then it kind of grew on me and living with other flight attendants at the time, I kind of made it kind of just flood flu. At my current airline, I'm gonna be with them for five years, next year in May, to be five years that I've been flying, which is crazy, crazy in my mind. I never thought that it would be told past so fast, but it has, and it's been a journey, it's been a journey, and it's been stressful and depressing at times, because you put up this facade, as flight attendants, we always learn to just keep smiling through, give it, to be pleasant and keep smiling through whatever situation you're going through, never show your real, never show that you're scared, or your real feelings, we are really motion. And it's hard, it's very hard. Is that I don't really talk to many people about what I feel, but I feel comfortable, you know, knowing that someone might listen to this and might understand what I'm going through. It's hard to push in, it's one of the biggest leading mental health issues in this country and around the world, and especially in a job as the one I do, a career that I have, which is being a flight attendant, and traveling all over. Don't get me wrong, I feel very blessed to have this job, because it's a job that a lot of people want, and you can achieve. And it's a job that has taken me to places that I've only dreamed of, and I've been fortunate to go see places that a lot of people want to, but never achieve. Coming from where I come from, a lot of you might, I believe I talked to this, previous episode, where I came from the hurt. I come from South Jersey, born in Raisins, South Jersey, and grew up, partially in the projects, and you know, my grandma's house, East Tandon. (laughs) It's a big accomplishment for myself, to be able to leave that environment, move to Florida, which nowadays that's like the thing. Everyone from the East Coast, North East wants to move to the South, especially to Florida. Either South Florida or Orlando, I move to Orlando. I move to Orlando in 2003, when a lot of people are not really moving to Florida, and a lot of things, and it was still livable. Nowadays, it's just packed, and rent has gone up, and the jobs do not pay, compared to what the rent, or the equivalent to what the rent is, and the food cost is, and it's just not paid. But, you know, it's, you know, it means it's just my home too. But I'm very fortunate to have the job that I have. I have the same time, it's very lonely, very lonely. You get to the hotel, you get to the hotel, you, you know, you get our own rooms, you get there, and you're all alone. Every Sunday, I had a first good to our layover in New York, and that's basically two days. That's two days, literally, two days and a few hours, into the third day, alone, and a room, and it's like, you call people, but you don't wanna bother, people have lies and stuff. And it gets really depressing because especially during this time, you just can't really go out, you know what I mean? You just can't say, oh my God, I'm going to the museum. Or I'm going, you know, to the mob, because I went to the mob to do Christmas shopping, to finish my Christmas shopping, but I go with caution. You know, I went in my own knowing what I was gonna buy. I went to buy, normally I browse through the mob. I can spend two hours, minimal, in the mob. Just browsing, going from store to store, checking the bargain, looking around, taking my sweet time, no. This time I went, like I was in a freaking race. Like I cheated on Zolle. I knew what I was gonna buy, I had it in my mind, okay, I need to buy this, and I need to get out of here. And that's exactly when I did. I didn't even buy food, normally I sit down, buy some lunch. No, what I did was I bought a tea, some iced tea, 'cause I was parked, I was thirsty, and I wanted to, I wanted some tea, so I got some tea, and I immediately called the Uber, 'cause nothing I think was raining, so. I mean, it wasn't a great day, it's gloomy, it's New York. I mean, New York is okay. (laughs) But I literally, and then when it's time to talk about it, and you just sit there, it's so much, it's a limited amount of TV I can handle. And it's very, there wasn't anything on TV, I was just there sitting in the room. Then I come home, right? And I come home after this Friday trip of doing absolutely nothing to silence. No one here, no one to say hi, how was your trip? How are you, how you feeling? Are you tired? Are you hungry? Nothing. And my partner was working, we don't know together, he had a new one, please. And you know, I get it, but it might seem so minimal, but for some, it gets to you because you see me, it takes a routine. Like I go out, I wake up in the morning right before it's true, by shower, I brush my teeth, I mix up everything in my bag, clothes, pack my bag, put on my uniform, feel fabulous, feel empowered with the uniform. Get on my right chair, my car service, it takes me to the airport. I get on this big plane, I travel to all these different places, different countries, I stay there. I mean, this passage, the one that's 62 hours in New York, I start off with a layover in San Diego. It's a minute in the republic, but you know, a lot of people were like, "Oh, that's cool, you went to the new republic, my horse." You know, just go to the pool, all I did was absolutely nothing because COVID has really taken a toll on things and people are playing around, you know, they're not really, they think that this is a joke and it's not. It's not a joke. You have to take it seriously and be cautious. Also, zoo, like I don't want to, you never know who's around you, the housing. People can be asymptomatic, you know, I've got, you know, my past trip before the one I just finished, I worked with people, I didn't know when you were on COVID and you're not blaming them because they probably didn't know themself until they got tested. You know, this virus is so deadly and so has made us think and made us, you know, reflect on what's important in life and people take, take for granted so much, people take for granted so much. And I hope that in this new year, people start changing their attitude, changing the really things, the really, they live life because it's scary times, you know. You know, we went from being able to travel anywhere in the world we wanted to basically no country as an American, no country wanting us because of the way this government and our country has treated the virus. And if we do, if we're unable to go to certain countries, it's like everyone flocks to it and it becomes a spreader event. You know, I've heard of, I've known the people that have gone to these islands and have come back with COVID. I mean, they survived, but you don't want to jeopardize it. It's like, okay, if I catch it, okay, if you catch it, you probably be the one dying because you're going up with, oh, you know, Booby got COVID and he didn't die. He said it wasn't that bad. Okay, but you don't know what kind of underlying health issues you have. You might think that you are healthy, but you don't know what's underneath that skin underneath all that, you know, you don't know. You can be the one being intubated. You can be the one being put in a body bag. Like, you don't want that. You don't want to be able to, you don't want to be the one catching it, being asymptomatic, bringing it to your family. And they be the one that's like, basically, you killed them. You basically killed them. People have to take responsibility on a ship. Be respectful. Show some humanity, some compassion with each other, which we have lost in this past few years. No humanity, no compassion. No respect for life, no respect for others. You know, we don't have to agree with each other. We don't even have to like each other. But how show some respect and dignity. Life is too precious. There's so many beautiful things out there to see. The YouTube just be so careless or recklessly, you know, so reckless. So not giving a damn. I just really hope that people take this time to reflect on each other. You know, because as a friend, you have an author who's going through what, who needs to hear that voice of, hey, how are you? Just checking up on you. Making sure you're okay. I don't like to tell people my problems, but I don't like to call them by with people who tell, hey, yeah, I'm not feeling good. I'm not kind of depressed, you know, feeling lonely. Because I don't have people to force out for me. But I feel like this is a way for me to have that express my feelings when I'm thinking. And I just want everyone to just take care of themselves. Because COVID has not been only deadly killer out there. Depression. Depression is one big silent killer. So I tell you this. You can live within yourself and try to find hope and clench the hope until you see the sunlight. We're all going to get through this. We're all going to come out survivors. All I'm going to be out in the beach one day and sip in a mojindo and saying, yeah, that was some dark times, but we overcame, we conquered. We can give up. So don't give up. Don't clench into the hope. Don't give up. There's someone out there that wants you to believe. Don't have the passion to feed you. Don't like COVID. Get to you. And if you have COVID, if you're going through it, you have to find a strength within you to fight it. So let the devil know that he's not going to win. Did you breathe in excess? Strengthen those ones. Take those vitamins. Don't stand there. Get up. Find a strength. You will defeat them. We will all defeat this. This is the takeoff. I'm your host, Norge. Stay safe. Wear your mask. Wash your hands. Keep some social distance. That's right. Stay safe. See you at part. Until the next time. Ciao. (upbeat music)