“Alert! An unknown virus is spreading around the world”, this is how my most awful, unforgettable experience, or should I say “our horrible experience”, began.
For three whole years, we have been hiding behind our facemasks, avoiding social activities, separated from our loved ones, praying so hard to end this disgusting pandemic. We pray, we hope, we beg, but the novel coronavirus doesn’t seem to want to let us go. We struggled so hard to make things better, but it just wouldn’t go away.
Dead bodies all around, people crying and screaming, patients trying to hold their last breath, all these scenes made me shudder with fear. Everything was getting out of control, it was hard to remember the normal lives we had in the past, or dare to think about the splendid future we looked forward to having. The virus is making us suffer, both physically and emotionally, it keeps torturing us in many ways. And with that the internet became our only way to communicate, which is difficult for humans who need socialisation.
Every new year we wished that the first news was that the “novel coronavirus has disappeared”, yet, time after time we were disappointed. Actually, it’s not the virus which scares us the most, it’s the changes. We are all afraid of changes, one thing changes many things, we want our lives to be stable, peaceful and quiet. Under these circumstances, our lives are no longer normal, we go out with a green health code, facemasks become a necessity, we can no longer speak to our colleagues or classmates bare faced, we have become used to communicating using Zoom, we have lost everything, every right and our freedom which we used to enjoy.
COVID-19 gave us desperation, depression and anxiety; at the same time, it gave us unity, the spirit to fight against this enemy and the current situation, while we all still had hope. Facing this pandemic, stay strong, have faith, be brave are the keywords we have in our minds that help us overcome these obstacles. We lost many things, but we learnt things too. We never know how tough we are, we were lost at first, we fought back, and today we can say that “we are winning”, victory is in our hands, and I believe time will prove it.
Ever since I was small, I imagined which experience would be my most vivid and memorable experience, a visit to Disneyland, a trip, graduation, or marriage? But nowadays, I’m so sure that nothing can compare to these three years, it’s harsh but it’s also an important experience to us, it’s also a reminder to humanity. We should have learnt from our past, and our history, to make a better world instead. Every experience is a lesson for the future, we cannot control everything with all the unknowns on Earth, but we can learn how to survive in extreme situations, this is why humanity and our ancestors have been around for six million years or more.
We can never forget what has been in the past, it’s imprinted in our brain, though, we don’t have to forget, we are now stepping forward to a better future, we can now cry for happiness, for the effort we made, it’s a new milestone we survived. No more worries and uncertainty, and soon we can go out and walk in the streets without a facemask on, and we can finally see smiles on everyone’s faces. Be proud, we have gained a historical victory, this extraordinary experience can never be forgotten.
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
