My experience of the pandemic (COVID- 19)

[Muhammad Ehsan]

My experience of the pandemic (COVID- 19)
Throwing light back to a year or two. It was a time of hardships that we all have ever experienced. The whole world was gripped with the darkness, there was fear all around. We had never been passed through that kind of hardships ever before. The fear all around was of a virus that spread with no limit of time. It was such a kind of virus that was later named COVID 19(coronavirus disease – 2019). It was originated from Wuhan, a city in China. Though it was originated in China, it gripped on hold world within a few months. This was the very infectious virus, which caused respiratory infection in humans. Soon it was officially declared as a pandemic by World Health Organization (WHO). So it was all about what was the covid and why it was called a pandemic. Now, let us come towards my story, how I survived in those pandemic days and what were the practices that I did during those hard times. By the grace of almighty Allah, I have never been affected by COVID up till now. During those pandemic days, there was implemented a lockdown by the government in the whole of the country. The steps which were taken out in the whole country and widely in the whole world were that no one would leave his/ her home without having some authentic excuse. If someone would be found roaming anywhere outside unnecessarily he or she would then face the circumstances. So there were made restrictions even on leaving the homes.
So, this COVID was started in China in December 2019 and reached Pakistan in March 2020. All the educational institutions in Pakistan were to be closed from 14th March 2020, now how I knew all these exact dates? At that time I was giving my pre-board exams for FSC Part II with little or no preparation, the reason was that at their time I was preparing for my SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test). So, I put all of my efforts into this test instead of my ongoing exams, and the day after I appeared for my test, all the institutions got closed, and I was the lucky one who remained successful in giving that test. Likewise, all the educational system, institutions, academies, and everything else related to that got closed. COVID was arising day by day, the fear all around was at its peak, people started following SOPS more strictly, started abiding by the rules and steps taken by the government, started to remain within their homes. I and my family was also following those SOPS very strictly. At the very start of those days we all family members started to remain inside our homes because there was fear all around of getting infected. During that isolation period, I started preparing for my final board exams of Intermediate which were just postponed for two months. I got that grace time for my preparation and started preparing for my exams because I wasn't having anything other to do inside the home at that time. After 20-25 days, there came a rumor on social media that the exams got canceled, many of the students including me became double-minded about whether to study or not. Students were excited to hear a piece of news like that and in a couple of few days, the news was officially announced that exams of all school and college classes got canceled, I was also not fully prepared so somehow I was also happy after hearing that. Now I had only two things to do at that time, to sleep or to do physical exercises at home. Over time, though fear of COVID was present but some of those restrictions were slightly lightened. Hence, I preferred to do physical exercises outside somewhere in parks, when there is a little number of people outside, rather than doing those inside the home. Side by side, I applied in the army (TCC- Technical Cadet Course) and started preparing for that and also started physical exercises for that. After having a couple of tests I went to KOHAT for ISSB (Inter-Services Selection Board). At ISSB we were five members (from different cities) living in a room, one of them started greeting the others, others were a little bit afraid to shake hands but they did, so I asked myself just to go with the flow. I thought if I have to become infected I will, even without going out of this room. And if not, then even while working with the different people I won't become infected. I knew that during those three to four days I will have to perform a different type of tasks, will appear in different interviews in front of many senior officers, will have to collaborate with different people so after realizing this, I normalized myself and after that, if someone wanted to greet me, I met him with great hospitality, now shaking hands, sitting together, making gossips, eating together was a normal thing for all of us. After spending four days there, I came back home and on the very next day, my result was to be announced but unfortunately, I was not recommended for that. Coincidentally, all of my other four roommates were also not recommended, I was in depression for two days because I practiced, I prepared, and I worked so hard even then I didn't get recommended. But my parents told me one thing that, there are so many opportunities in your life, don't regret the ones which you have failed, just learn from your failures and avail those opportunities which are waiting for you. Bit by bit, with time I started to, forgot about the past and applied to the 10 most renowned universities of Pakistan and after giving their tests, I successfully got admission in seven of them.
Now I don't know whether it was my wise decision or not but I chose IST (Institute of Space Technology) for aerospace engineering, and currently, I am doing BS aerospace engineering from this Institute. Ever since I got admission at IST, I haven't found any peace in my life, at the daytime, there was tension of classes and at the night there was the tension of assignments and quizzes. After assignments and quizzes there came midterms exams, after those there came projects and after projects were over there came the tension of final exams. And this tension is eating away at me within. I don't even get time to sleep properly at night. I know this is the situation of every student but nothing is in our hands except doing hard work. At the end of these whole two online semesters, we are supposed to give on-campus exams. And this is not good to have on-campus exams after studying online for two semesters (I think). So, this was all about my experience, how I passed this COVID, this pandemic situation. I hope this type of pandemic will never come again in our lives, I pray for those who died of this virus, and I wish good luck to those who remain successful in covering these whole situations.
Sincerely,
Muhammad Ehsan
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