THE YEAR 2020 TAUGHT ME!

“You are never more alive than when you’re a teenager. Your brain is flushed with chemicals that can turn your life into a story of epic proportions. An A-minus feels like the Pulitzer, a lonely Saturday night is an eternity of solitude.” This is what we felt like, being at home not doing anything, this is what we wished for, this is what the whole world wished for, until we got it. We got 2020, a year full of emotions, memories, and much more.

It is what we wanted, didn’t we, at least that’s what I wanted, you know a day where we had nothing to do, nothing to think about, not about school, or “Oh the math homework I have to finish” or “Oh the project I got to do” “Gotta submit this paper before Thursday, cause that is the last day of submission”. If we ever even forgot to pen down one essay, or one math sum of homework, that thought would haunt us for the whole night! We’d be twisting and turning in our beds the whole night and making up scenarios in our mind about the next day, imagine all the possible ways in which we may get punished, would it be severe or mild? It all depended on the teacher’s mood because they were the boss in the classroom, everything that used to happen in a classroom was observed by the teachers, our conduct, tonality, presentation of work, you name it and the teacher has a record about it. Teachers are like spies, you know, or like FBI agents who know each and every detail about us, every move we make or every move we are going to make in the future. If the teacher catches any child gossiping or misbehaving in the class, the teacher right up catches hold of you and scolds you or rather embarrasses you in front of the whole class. And when we ask how in the whole wide world do they get to know everything even when they are facing the board, they have a very simple yet annoying answer ”We teachers have not two but three eyes! Two in the front and one behind the head, which lets us see the behaviour of all you naughty little kids. ” we always knew it was said as a joke but seriously how can you see us even without turning behind! Sometimes I wonder they really might be having a third eye, or some spies around the classroom giving the teacher the report of class behaviour every second. I don’t know it might be true. Are the teachers given this kind of training in college “how to develop that inner third eye to spy on children.” You know if the teacher decides to change their profession, they could definitely become a spy, no kidding, they have got hearing of a moth or a bat, eyesight of an owl, and of course attitude of a lion! They would be the perfect spy or an agent, who knows?

But all that came to a pause or rather a big pause, when a lady from a market in china ate a bat which caused dun dun dun “THE COVID 19”. Or so the story’s told, don’t know, this is what came in the news. Straight from the news to this article special delivery! Just for you! But anyway because of one woman, billions of us have to suffer. And now we enter the great pandemics of all times(the only one I have experienced though)COVID 19. Wohooo! Fun isn’t it to think about it now a year later? When we look back to see where have we come!When our PM first announced lockdown in India, China had corona cases spread over the country like a wild fire! There were many cases for the medical facilities there to handle. When we got to know the news, we were happy, you know finally our wishes came true after I don’t know how many countless times we threw a coin in wishing her wells, or purposely removed an eyelash so that could wish for one simple thing a day full of nothing. Initially we were quite happy to be spending time with our family and do fun things at home. I am pretty sure, all the introverts around India were surely having a silent dance party in their room after the lockdown got initiated. But for the lovely extroverts who loved socialising, got into a depressed mood and maybe even started balling their eyes out. Any which ways we all thought or rather expected for this to soon get over. Soon schools, colleges, offices get shut in India for their safety. For the first few weeks it actually was fun, until there came a message from school “there will be online classes starting from….” It was like a bomb, for me a huge one , like BOOOOM. And so we were introduced to the new mode of  conversation, called ONLINE COMMUNICATION VIA  APPS. Like what! *brain explosion* I never in my wildest dreams thought about this way of communicating other than whatsapp, facetime etc. , and soon became the only way of communicating! Apps like zoom and google meet were introduced to us. At first I really enjoyed online school even proposed the idea of getting me homeschooled to my parents(that did not work, if you were wondering). In early stages of the lockdown, we all enjoyed the new way of communication, the school introduced different games and quizzes to get us engaged whilst learning. I remember, whenever we would turn on the news channel, the number of cases that popped up on the side bar shocked us! Our reactions were like “Oh my god! What is going to happen, hoping this ends well and soon.”

Soon everything changed, the homework that took us hours to finish, was getting finished in half the time due to the new advances in our lives. Soon we realised that we were no more in an epidemic we all thought, but a pandemic which has caused may deaths, many families grieving over their dead body, crying at the sight of them getting pulled out to burn, they grieved of their absence. We never really valued the things we had, let it be our house only! We hardly ever stayed in our houses, we were out the whole day- from one class to another study, study, and study. Our parents working nine to five job, we never really got a chance to have meal with our family together, not worrying about the future, thinking what are you going to after this meal. If our family asks us to talk with them, live in the present but we always made excuses like “I have classes to attend” or “I have emails to answer” and what not. But the year 2020 has given us ample of time to spend with our family. Now we could not just make up excuses. But now we realised how much we missed spending time with our loved ons, staying, thinking, and talking in the present. It is what we needed not wanted.

My family also introduced new ways for us to engage with one another. Every weekend we all would conjure up nice to eat as dinner. It was like going to a fancy restaurant whilst staying home and adhering to rules. It was like we were in the fanciest of the fanciest restaurants except we were the chefs as well as the customers! Oh how fun has it been. Soon we walked into June, half year, we again had our hopes high that everything would go back to normal before my birthday which was in June. But the case did not change, it stayed the same, and so we had to celebrate my birthday at home. Telling you the truth, this was one of the best birthdays I ever had, though it was at home and laid back, I still enjoyed to the fullest. This was the moment I realised how much I enjoyed this way of living, no chaos, no rush birthday party. This year we transformed ourselves from being chaotic to being laid back and chill, you know just hanging there living our lives.It was September by this time we were EXHAUSTED we were more than used to living in the new normal. We needed to get out, like bugs getting out after the first showers. School again messaged us ”We will be having our terminal reviews online due to COVID….” It was the first ever examination in the history to be attended online and the thought of attending the exam online sent shivers down my spine  I did not know how it was going to be. But at last it was very easy. In this online learning we had many advantages and disadvantages. We had the choice of internet just one click away, but we did not have interaction that was face to face. Whenever we used to watch movies, we saw people hugging, shaking hands, and standing less than six feet apart! We always got shocked at the sight of physical touch. We have gotten so used to the new normal that we have just forgotten  how our life was before this. I bet a hundred percent that we would not know how to act when we go out to our past normal for the first time.

And now it is a new year, new number, but the same old virus and same old habits.As much as we love this way of living we miss the old way of living the same.Alas we have learned a lot in the past year how to value the simplest of simplest things, how important family and loved ones are, how easily we got adjusted to not getting the things we wanted. "We always expect the earth to stand still. For the universe to grieve the loved ones lost, along with us. But it keeps moving. Maybe as a sign we should too. The movement of strangers, like a wave, taking us with them. “ So lets enter the new year on a positive note. Stay home stay safe.

Thank you!