It has been almost 2 years since the pandemic started. As of now, 247,114,753 Covid-19 cases have been reported across the world. 5,010,059 deaths have occurred due to Covid-19. And the pandemic is still far from over yet.
Everyone has been affected by the pandemic, in one way or the other, and the impact will be undoubtedly long-lasting. As a way, to remind you of all the different experiences that you went through these unprecedented times, and highlight the positive ones, I am writing this blog today.
In the past, COVID-19 was a new idea, and there was so much anxiety, and tension revolving around it. Nobody knew what it exactly was, or how it came about, but we did know that it would write a new chapter in history. In the initial stages of the virus, we never used to go outside, and if we went, we would wear masks, carry hand sanitizers, be cautious of other people, and always maintain social distancing. There was a little leeway, as the case numbers slowed down, but most of the precautions remained the same. Suddenly, now these ‘precautions’ seem like part of our daily routine if we go outside.
As we remained at home for longer periods of time, we have gotten more time to spare to explore new hobbies, passions, and interests. Personally, I got a lot of extra time on my hands, and used that to get into new hobbies and explore new passions. For example, I learned how to bake successfully (but let’s just not mention the number of failed attempts I had)! I also had the opportunity to play badminton and soccer, learn a bit of coding, start branching into a wide genre of books, and learn more about my favorite topics. Of course, I also used this time, not so productively, to binge-watch my favourite Netflix series and movies. And to just do nothing, staring at the wall, being occupied with my thoughts or simply sleeping. But that’s fine too. If you, dear reader, think about it more deeply, you will also realize the importance of time and how much time the pandemic has given us.
Another thing, we have learned, as a society, though the years of 2020 and 2021 was about the importance of family. That kind of sounds self-contradictory right? But, ironically that’s what happened through the pandemic. Through zoom, people were able to connect and meet my family more than ever before, the seldom in-person family gatherings became the frequent zoom meetings. And talking about immediate family, with the amount of the free time we received, we were able to have more game nights and movie nights, and connect with our loved ones better. Personally, for me, by now, zoom video calls have become the ‘new normal’ for me, and the cousins I have seldom met, have become my good friends. I have also developed a closer bonding with my grandparents, and I loved spending time on zoom with them.
In fact, this leads me right into my next topic. One of things for sure, one of the things we, as a society, learned in 2020 and 2021 is about the virtual world and the internet. The whole world transitioned to the online world; zoom, google classroom, google meet, Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Amazon, etc. And phones became more frequently used, for staying connected. I am sure many of you experienced this too, right? And this experience even though it could be the most frustrating and challenging at times, was a surprisingly good one too. As we learned how to shift to the global internet world, we all learned many new things and improved our skills on using the internet. We, as a world, also got to experience the capability of us, as a species to be able to advance so much in our technologies to get to the world we have today.
Now when I reflect on all the experiences I’ve had through the crazy situation of the coronavirus, I understand that I’ve learned many new things! As they all say, it’s better to look back on all the positive experiences that you have had from a situation. I can now definitely say that I’ve cherished all the new lessons, I’ve learned from this inevitable COVID experience!
And you, dear reader, as you are reading this blog, I hope you are doing and keeping well. . Even if you are facing tough times right now, take a flashback to the positive times, and learn to reflect on the silver linings of things. After all, “Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light” – Albus Dumbledore (Harry Potter).
