It’s the morning (or early afternoon) of January 1, 2020. You probably stayed up to see the ball drop in Times Square or enjoy a New Year’s Eve party with friends or family. The sentiment I got from most people was that 2019 wasn’t the best of times, but it was hardly going to be remembered as the worst either.

Imagine that someone sat you down on December 31, 2019, and said, “In three months, every school, library, restaurant, and most stores will be closed. As millions of people lose their jobs, people will wait outside places like Target and Wal-Mart for hours just to buy toilet paper. Every public sporting event, concert, art exhibit, play, and every gathering of more than ten people will be canceled. The government will be scrambling to set up makeshift hospitals because of warnings that hospitals don’t have enough beds and ventilators, not to mention that the people whose job it is to work in our hospitals won’t have enough protective equipment. Mayors, governors and the president will be on television daily warning people to stay away from each other while showing graphs of dozens of people dying turning into hundreds and then thousands. And it’s not just America. The same scenarios will be happening around the world at the same time.”

You don’t need to know what the cause is. You know I’m talking about a virus, but it could have been a natural disaster, a meteor, a nuclear bomb, or some other catastrophe that caused everything I just listed above. Had someone sat you down and read you that previous paragraph, it probably would have put you into a state of fear that you haven’t yet felt as we sit here in the present, dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

 Maybe you don’t have a job now because of the virus. Maybe you’re late paying the Internet bill or rent. You could be on a steady diet of ramen and Diet Coke. It’s probably been weeks since you hung out with friends – and it should be. Perhaps someone close to you, or even yourself, has suffered from the virus. In the most tragic of situations, perhaps even someone close to you has died.

But here you are. You’re probably worried, but resigned to the world we’re currently living in. Maybe you’ve even felt a little guilty because the thought, “This really isn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” has crossed your mind. Don’t feel guilty. Be proud of your resilience and your perseverance. Yes, there are plenty of others who have it worse than you—there are also plenty of others who have it better.

Maybe you’re taking your college classes online but have always avoided online classes. Perhaps you’re working from home for the first time in your life. Maybe you’ve lost your job and are learning the ins and outs of an unemployment system you never thought you’d utilize. Perhaps travel restrictions are keeping you away from loved ones.

Then, the rest of life happens. There have been record-breaking snowstorms in part of the country this month. People are still twisting ankles, getting into fender-benders, and needing to get their gallbladders and tonsils removed. One major problem doesn’t get rid of all the other little ones that pop up unannounced. You’ll survive those, too. Sometimes Mother Nature lets us sail through life, and other times, she throws at us what feels like too much. You’re going to get through all of this, and you’re going to be better for it.