Embedded Files
How COVID-19 Has Affected My Life
by Fawaz Kurd
When the pandemic first started, I thought it’d be over in about a month, two months max. But here we are, about 1 and ¼ of a year through, and it has been the worst moments of my life. Sure, the first part was decent, having a spring break three times its usual length, but ever since then, it hasn’t been too good. When the break started in March, my brother and I got a lot more time to watch Netflix, which was kinda fun, but we ended up binge-watching pretty much everything within two to three months. So after the 2019-20 school year finally ended in June, we were bored.
Having spent nearly an entire semester online for the first time was a weird feeling. For me, all the work seemed a lot more manageable. I also ended up getting some more sleep because I didn’t have to wake up as early to get to school, which felt nice. At this point, I was enjoying online classes a bit more than in person. But soon, I realized that what made virtual classes worse was that I didn’t get to meet people.
During the summer, I usually go to some sort of camp or do something that involves meeting people in person. It felt weird not being able to do that during the summer. The pandemic had a big impact on my life, one that I’ll remember forever. It had me wondering sometimes about what life will be like after this is all over. Will people ever shake hands again? What would their reaction be to someone who sneezes or coughs? Will life ever be the same like it was before COVID?
I don’t know why but when the pandemic began, life seemed to go slower. I remember every now and then, I’d look at some graph on google relating to the virus, and every time the graph went down, I started to think it could be over soon, but it wasn’t. It just got higher the next week, and the situation got worse. By the time I knew it, the 2020-21 school year had already started, and I went virtual. At first, I thought virtual school was gonna be worse than in person school, but after hearing what in person school was really like, I was glad I chose virtual school.
When I found out that I would just start the year with two subjects, science and art, I thought this year was going to be easy, but by the time the second week ended, we already speedran through 2 units in both subjects; something that I thought would take way longer. I ended up finishing an entire subject within just 3 months. I was curious to see what the rest of the school year would look like. Then came the second quad, and soon, the third. For me, it felt like life finally started to speed up again.
Nowadays, with the government talking about reopening schools and public areas and finally start living the post-pandemic life, it started to feel like we were concluding this part of history. With more people getting vaccinated, the number of people contracting the virus started to fall. What used to be 4,000 cases a day turned into 1,000 cases. Yes, it’s still bad, but better than what it was before. So now I’m starting to think that at this rate, the pandemic could be over soon.
These past 15-16 months so far have been filled with boredom, confusion, and a bit of sadness. I’ve never really gone through anything worse than this, and I’d hope not to go through something like this again in the future.
Click the pic!
For student skits on their experiences with pandemic life, visit the OCV Drama page.
For students staying at OCV next year, it will be important to have strategies to meet people in the virtual environment. Check out Dear Phoenix from Issue 4 for advice on how to make friends in online school. This topic is addressed in the third question.
Page updated
Report abuse