Logan makes Covid his ally!

The arrival of the Covid pandemic was a trigger for me, as it forced me to make decisions that suddenly changed my path.

I will always remember when we started talking seriously about Covid. My family that I hadn't seen in months came to visit me in Palm Springs in March 2020. We were on a road trip when things got bad, which was a good thing at first because there were few people on the road or in the national parks, but at times it gave off an ominous, even apocalyptic atmosphere.

As soon as the road trip started, the Covid started to grow and caused the hasty departure of my family, forcing them to return to their home in France.

This was sad news because we hadn't seen each other for months and we had hardly had time to enjoy it when we had to separate. Frustrating, especially when I had to make a choice that was far from obvious: go back to France and stay close to my family or extend my visa and take advantage of this moment as a chance. Obviously, I was concerned about my family and grandparents, and still am. Not knowing what the future holds is something we all have to face.

At that time, in France, almost everything was already on hold and everyone was quarantined at home.

Here in the United States, the same thing had begun: The airports started to close and offer fewer and fewer destinations, which made me feel stranded in a foreign country. Then the restaurants, the stores, the National Parks ...

The resort town of Palm Springs was becoming an almost ghost town, which was not going to help me to meet people or to discover the surroundings.

At first I reacted like most people, I was scared and saddened by the situation.

But I had the feeling that I had to stay in the U.S.; I had put so much effort during these first months to assert myself at my job and to build my life comfort around this new environment that it was hard for me to consider leaving at the beginning of my adventure.

And what did I really have to lose? I had just moved into a new apartment, with an idyllic setting around me: swimming pool, summer temperatures, palm trees, clear view of the mountains...

The last point is that I love adventure and I think I am rather attracted by challenges and getting out of my comfort zone. So I made the choice to stay.

I had to be very careful though, because believe me when you stay in a foreign country like the US, you don't want to have health problems.

Business got even busier. People were confined in their homes 24/7 and suddenly wanted to renovate their surroundings , especially their yards and pools. Also, many people flocked from the big cities, buying second homes to have a place to enjoy the outdoors. This turned out to be a good thing as the demand increased by 20% for the company.

The downside was that it was impossible to find qualified and competent staff which turned into an asset for me, doubling my work time and responsibilities.

So I was not only the main designer of the company but I also became the project manager. This new responsibility consists in imagining and estimating the projects but also supervising the work during the realization and making sure that the design validated on paper comes to life on the field.

I learned a lot and I continue to do so because every week I visit the construction sites. This allows me to interact with the workers in the field and to understand more easily the steps of the construction. But I also set up a weekly meeting with the company manager and the site supervisor to discuss the various problems to be solved or improved for our future achievements.

I was then able to improve my plans, make projects with more precision and reduce errors in the field. At that time, I devoted a lot of energy to my work, which took up to 70% of my day.

For the rest of my time I tried to devote it to discovering the country, its diversity and its vast landscapes!It turned out that during this difficult period for everyone, I met my girlfriend. Another thing that I was far from imagining.We decided to rent a van a few times and set out to discover the American West.It was limited in excursions and visits because many things were closed but we could enjoy the road and all these beautiful landscapes which were practically only for us.

The pandemic brought a lot of negatives into our lives, but I really tried to turn the situation around and make it my own and try to make my life better during this time.
As of today, it has been a year and a half since Covid started and it is still there leaving scars behind. But I hope that will serve as a lesson and life will seem easier afterwards…