When Radha Ruparell (MBA 2008) fell ill with COVID-19, she wasn’t prepared for the physical and emotional rollercoaster that the ensuing weeks would bring. On day 16 of her illness, which she managed from home in New York, the 39-year-old sat down to document how the experience reshuffled her sense of safety and meaning. Ruparell, the head of leadership and learning at Teach For All, published her essay, “What No One Tells You About Having COVID-19,” on Medium.

In it she offers four lessons to those who find themselves battling the virus:

1. Allow yourself to lean and be seen. Ruparell’s lifeline came from a broad network of friends and colleagues, who provided physical and emotional support, including grocery delivery and encouraging text messages during her illness.
2. Let go and be with what’s so. After two weeks, Ruparell admitted to herself that she had never been more scared for her life. By naming that fear, “suddenly it wasn’t so terrifying anymore,” she writes. “Right then, I made a choice: to be positive, fight with all my energy, and soak in the good moments when I had them.”
3. Cultivate a strong mind. It’s simply not enough to focus on physical health alone.
4. Slow down and soak it in. Pausing to feel gratitude for those on the front lines of this crisis, as well as those who lead in quiet service every day—beyond this pandemic—and rarely get acknowledged, Ruparell pondered how different our culture might be if we refocused our values on those who serve.

The experience has been humbling and served as an important reminder of our interconnectedness, she says. “Over the past few days, I have felt haunted, scared for my life, in pain, confused, anxious, angry, alone, worried that I am losing my mind, and terrified of others getting this. I have also had the most profoundly moving experiences of connection with loved ones and strangers; gratitude for the life I have lived; presence in moments I had once taken for granted; awe for those on the front lines; and an experience of slowing down and letting go.”

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