Living through a time of crazy transformation as a UP English Language and literature Kosovar student

How do I adapt?: this is a stressful question that I believe most people had during March of last year. We saw the world as we knew it change drastically because a virus that we knew very little about was quickly making its way throughout the planet. This virus highlighted all the ways that we humans are quite powerless to a lot of outside forces. It is somewhat innate in us to try and control outcomes, or at least make the best out of situations, hence the stressful question of adaptation.

For many adults, this pandemic meant a potential job loss or financial loss. Although I consider myself to be lucky that my close family did not get deeply affected by the situation, it was impossible to ignore what this meant for many families across the country. These transformative times reminded me of a powerful quote: What happens to one, happens to the whole. Whether we like it or not, this pandemic underlined so many of the problems our society has, starting from our public health-care system. Because we have a health care system that no one seems to trust, me and my family members were all praying we do not get the virus and have side effects so bad that we have to go to the hospital. What sad thoughts!

But, staying in the feeling of powerlessness is counterproductive because it offers no options as to how one can move forward. So, I came up with yet another stressful question, only this time it was a bit more specific: What is it that I can do right now to make this situation better? Where can I start?

During the first months of quarantine, I had a lot of free time. That meant that I could engage in a lot of side projects I had been contemplating about for quite some time. For example, I always wondered about the idea of working online and how I could make that work. So, I started exploring my options and was happy to see some of them come to fruition. Additionally, I had quite a few books I had put off reading since I never had the time to do so. With the beginning of the pandemic, I started reading these books which I did enjoy immensely. Lastly, I took the time to learn new recipes and ways of cooking which led to some epic failures, but some small success here and there too. Lastly, in order to help my community I translated a lengthy and informative COVID-19 article which offered incredible insight, and made a lot of predictions that consequently came true.

Focusing on ways to make the most out of my time, whilst working through so many of the negative feelings produced by the pandemic and all that was going around the world helped me keep my head above water. Adapting through such a difficult time was and continues to be a great challenge for all. But, there is power in knowing that this is a joint difficulty we are going through, and coming together and sharing our experiences from time to time can be very rewarding.