“IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES, IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES“
Quoting from the book “Tale Of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens”
ONLINE CLASSES AND ALL
More than the pandemic we students are irritated with online classes. Earlier on campus, we had the chance to meet our friends and enjoy the two breaks with them but now that opportunity is not there with us anymore. All we have to do now is stay confined to the four walls of our house and stare at our laptop screens for six hours each day. This is indeed a tedious task for us students! One thing that came to my mind recently is that the hypocrisy that we students have to deal with! Earlier we were always advised by our mentors, institutions, parents to stay away from gadgets and now the same people ask us to stare at the screens and do our online classes properly. We also do not have any option but to do as we are told as after all we need that “attendance”.
These are some of the things that I dislike about online classes but over time I have understood that these are not major issues to get upset about. After all, life is unfair to all and unexpected situations and occurrences are a rule of life. 2 years ago I had never imagined that I will be leading such a sedentary lifestyle and will be missing the best two years of my life. But after all, it is what it is. This has angered me many times also and I have asked myself that Why Me? I get no answer except that we have to accommodate and adjust ourselves keeping the situation in mind.
DEALING WITH THE SITUATION
I was a Class 10 student back in 2020 and was diligently practising topography when I suddenly hear my sister shouting at the top of her lungs and telling “Exams will not happen” in Bengali. Initially, I ignored her and concentrated on my topography as the only thought that I had in my mind at that time was to get a 95% in Geography the next day.
After a while when I saw the news for myself, I realised that she was not lying. A string of negative thoughts started to do rounds in my mind and to add more to my problems, I am a complete overthinker. I finally calmed down when we received the official announcement that the exams will be held later. I was extremely frustrated at this as I had planned my next few months and due to the pandemic and lockdown, everything went haywire.
After I few months, I eventually started to adjust to the “quarantine lifestyle”. I told myself that “just a few months more and then we will be free to live our normal lives again”. But that did not happen, as usual, the lockdown was extended and our exams were cancelled. At that time I felt extremely demotivated as all my hard work went to waste.
However, after a few months of I guess I would say “mourning”, I decided to see the positive side of the situation. I saw the countless efforts of our school trying to make our classes and extracurricular activities interesting for us, the efforts of our teachers including some of them who were not familiar with technology trying their best to teach us. As I always like to believe that every situation has its merits and demerits and the quarantine times allowed us to spend time with ourselves and our loved ones. In the hassle of our monotonous regular lives, we forget to cherish what we have and the pandemic situation surely gave us this opportunity. Beyond human life, there exists a force that regulates everything, I have always believed in that and I feel that the questions to it will always be unanswered. We cannot know everything in one life, can we? We, humans, spend most of our time thinking about the future and I guess that this unknown force decided to give us the chance to cherish our present. It decided to show our power as the human race and how we have the power to defeat something as deadly as the pandemic if we are united. The cooperation from all the countries during the pandemic in finding solutions to combat it has given me the hope that “world peace” is still possible.
Thus, I would conclude by stating that unpredictable things and situations are bound to happen, but we as humans must keep on inspiring and cooperating with each other keeping in mind that “this shall too pass”
Students have the most complicated lives according to me. We are expected to adjust to everything. Why? Are we not expected to lead our lives on our own terms?
As students, we already face a large number of restrictions and those have increased even more now due to the pandemic.
