Pandemic.
Generally, it seems to be interpreted as a period when all the humanity is struck with some kind of widespread disease caused by a virus or bacteria. But physical health is not the only issue that we face during the pandemic.
Now, this blog is about my own experience of pandemic and how it affected me, not physically but mentally and emotionally.
As I am a student, a teenager, so for me it was the loss of the experience of academic period. Actually, when the pandemic started in March 2020, my college was almost coming to an end. Thus, during the pandemic the only difference was that all my “teenage-social life” was restricted to the mobile phone screen as it did for almost all others.
But I was also glad that I got ample time to solely gaze upon and cherish the aesthetic nature around me, which, I am very fond of.
I spent the first five months of the pandemic twiddling thumbs, on the screen of my phone and also applying in different institutes, mostly offering aerospace engineering. I also participated in an online sketching competition where teenagers from all over the Pakistan had to make a sketch depicting the abuse of animal rights and I actually got in top 10.
In September 2020, my university classes officially started, the time when the actual struggle of pandemic began. It was the very first semester of our university and not knowing completely about the academic system of university, it was really a chaos for all of us. Sitting in front of our laptop screens from 8 AM to 4 PM, in a single chair, perplexed between whether to revise today’s lecture or to complete assignment or to prepare for the quiz.
The major mental challenge in this was to deal with all the university work, especially because of absence of class environment, it was very hard to muster up all the motivation daily.
But on the other hand, it was easy for me to get familiarized with other class mates as we could chat anytime. Moreover, the group projects also helped a lot, as all the group members had to contribute by working together.
Looking at the positive side, this pandemic actually prepared me to deal with the very unexpected and unforeseen situations. It made me mentally and emotionally strong as I got to face many issues and problems even before the start of the university and I learnt how I can deal with every situation by staying calm and using a more rational approach.
During this pandemic, the most remarkable incident occurred when we finally got to go to our university at the start March 2021, for two weeks. It was a short period of time but it was very amazing as I got to experience both hostel and university life. Moreover, almost all of the classmates knew each other beforehand, so it also made the interaction with others, very fruitful.
I hope that, as the vaccination has started so with the passage of time the situation gets better and we get to spend our remaining academic years as we are meant to. And till the situation remains the same, we get to devise more efficient ways to deal with our collective issues.
Sincerely,
Hamza
028
Aero19 – B