Dear readers,
I want to share with you all my experience with the deadly pandemic that has now changed our lives all together.
It is the beginning of year 2020, the world is struck by a deadly virus. The virus called COVID19 quickly turned into a pandemic. In March 2020, Pakistan announced its first lockdown. People are terrified and confused at the same time. Here I am preparing for my upcoming exams which were scheduled in April. Government announces to cancel the board exams and to promote the students on the basis of pervious grades and this is how corona in its initial stages proved to be a blessing in disguise for me. But this blessing turned into a nightmare quite rapidly. It was extremely difficult for an extrovert and social person like me to remain at home for most part of the day. The only exposure I used to get was if in case there was need of grocery or any other item that was supposed to be bought from market. Wearing masks and gloves and trying to keep social distance of 6 feet was something new and strange for me. At the same time, seeing people neglecting the precautions and violating the SOPs used to urge me to think is this really a truth? Or is it a conspiracy?
For my family it was surely not a conspiracy as we lost two dear members of our family. First it was my maternal grandfather who lost his life due to after effects of Covid19. An old man, aged nearly 80, was never going accept it as a reality too soon as he never experienced such situation in his whole life. The second person was my uncle who lost the battle to corona virus.
These unfortunate events affected my mental health severely. I was taking the necessary precautions and yet I was uncertain about my life. It seemed like the virus was going to be a part of our remaining life. I lost my willpower to do anything. There was no healthy activity to keep me busy. It had drastic effects on my academic as well as social life.
On the other hand, universities started their admissions and I got busy in applying for universities and luckily I got into one. I was excited to start a new chapter of my life but it too got affected by the virus. I studied my first semester online and by far it was the most stressing period of my life. The experience of virtual education was stressing and less interactive. As a socially active person interaction mattered the most to me. The results were good but the satisfaction was not there. I hope that to avoid such issues in future Pakistan will work on the field of digital learning more.
In addition, all these events which took during the ongoing pandemic changed my outlook of life. I began to view world as an uncertain place. I began to appreciate little things which caused joy in my life. I started to spend more time with my family. I learnt that loneliness hurts more than we thought and we need to trust others in difficult times .We need to trust the government and as a nation we have to fight such crisis together.
Even after facing all this, I hope for a better and bright future and InshaAllah the crowds will return but we’ll have to gather carefully.
Yours sincerely,
Syed Muhammad Faiq Javed
040
Aero-19 B.