I’m staring at the computer screen watching recordings of missed lectures and trying to memorize jargon that I can’t even pronounce. What better time to reminiscence about the past? It’s been months since the global pandemic hit, and a lot has changed since. Face masks have become another item of clothing, Zoom has become a necessity, and “pandemic” has become the most used word of 2020. I have gone from saying “bless you” when one sneezes, to taking a double-take when someone so much as sniffles, and following every death news I hear with the question “from Covid?”
Somewhere between washing my hands and rubbing on hand sanitizer, this enormously disruptive and painful crisis emerged into a time of purpose, creativity, and improvisation. I found myself formulating exercise regimes, starting hair care routines, enrolling for online courses, downloading meditation apps, starting a journal, and getting free trials of streaming services to binge-watch before it expires.
Months later with the journal collecting dust in a corner, the online course canceled after several notification emails, hair chopped short, exercise regime given up without attempt, the meditation app deleted to make room for notes, and futile talks with my mother about starting to pay for the expired streaming service, I have to admit that my quarantine days haven’t been very productive.
Since the sudden, sharp yet blurry turn our lives took last March, it feels like living in an alternate universe. One where my life long fantasy of attending classes in pyjamas came true but also one where I have to celebrate parties through a laptop screen. All in all, from my brief break from the subclasses of protozoans, I guess I’m quite lost when it comes to my thoughts on this new normal. But one doesn’t have to have it all figured out to move forward, do they?
By Rtr. Sayagi Asogan
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