"The Not-So-Normal Normal", an article about COVID-19 and its effects on the Youth.
A student who has been working hard in all of her high school years to make her family proud and secure a proper future has been desiring to have her parents come onto the stage with their shoulders high and chin tilted up in justified pride to receive an award their child rightfully earned. Although she has been part of the honor list and has been acknowledged in the appropriate times, she strived to do her best, at the same time to let herself enjoy the last year with her classmates whom she’s been with for the past four years. Many students think likewise as their dreams and expectations for their last days of school and graduation ceremony are shattered completely.
A pandemic that is oddly persistent and strong, continues to scare people off the streets and bring an abundance of problems that have been skirted around, never truly solved. The deadly virus has claimed lots of lives and is affecting many more as it continues to disable Filipinos from physical social interactions and unwarranted trips outside of their very own homes. It does not seem to be stopping any time soon and the longer it takes, the higher the number of long-term effects on everyone.
Although it is unfair to think of the virus as a mere inconvenience, as all of the precautionary measures were taken out of necessity to prevent the further spread of the pandemic, it is a sign of indifference to ignore the inconveniences that this will entail for the future of all Filipinos, in regards to their daily lives, lifestyles, livelihood and even education.
The education system continues to stand unsure of its plans for the future and the abundance of changes that will have to be made as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to take lives and take control of the daily lives of Filipinos for an unsure but already significantly long, amount of time. In Metro Manila, schools have been shut down since the 12th day of March, cutting off classes and preventing the continuation of all graduation plans. With that, the region was also placed under lockdown which prevents the general public from leaving their houses for unimportant activities.
Until now, the education system continues to stagger backward under the force of the virus as it pushes all existing plans off the table, unable to make any concrete solutions to the problems and delays the pandemic has caused. Most, if not all schools had been shut down before any graduation or moving-up ceremonies had taken place, leaving the students in the middle of the last quarter of the school year 2019-2020. Public schools and some private schools had persevered and adapted into an online class system, however, proper examinations can not be done through that process, leaving another block in the middle of the road.
Even now, the situation yields problems that still cannot be solved in the current situation. Graduating students have been unable to experience their graduation ceremonies, feel the satisfaction with themselves for persevering through all the years of hard work, and lack of sleep, instead, to be faced with the anxiety that the pandemic brings because of its dangers and the uncertainty of the near future. This feeling seems shallow and insensitive as people are being robbed of their lives but in perspective, these students are being robbed of their once-in-a-lifetime experience that they worked years towards.
Since then, the education system and said students have been in a state of constant uncertainty as the pandemic has yet to give enough leeway to think about the future and the compromises that will have to be taken to compensate for the amount of time and the significant number of plans that have been thrown out due to the inability to do much in this state of quarantine.
Now, supposedly graduating students and all adolescents struggle to get a grip on a sense of normalcy as the situation continues to evolve and braces themselves for the impact of the “new normal”. As communities splinter under the stress in desperation to end the pandemic, it seems that the best way to go is to, metaphorically, become a tightly-knitted close community that supports each other and provides each other with a shoulder to lean on and a hand to hold. In the midst of this unpleasant situation, people must stand together as one and fight this battle with each other.
Truly, what the world needs now is love. Whether it be supporting each other by listening to each other’s woes and worries or giving as much as a simple meal to those unable to get food for themselves, people must not be selfish in times like these, rather, people must be willing to give the excess that they have to fill the needs of those less lucky. It does not have to be much as a lot can be done through the simplest and smallest of gestures. This is a show of love for family, friends, and everyone around us in particular, and humanity as a whole. Moving on is also a show of love for the people around us, but it shows one’s self-love as well, to be able to move on from such a situation and not dig yourself too deep into the situation.
As this student continues moving forward even as her long-time dream was deemed unattainable, she thinks other people should too. More experiences will come and more opportunities will be open for adolescents like her, only if everyone takes it in stride and continues hoping and dreaming as young adolescents should.
Despite all of the different situations and feelings from the situation, people with the help of other people must move on. Nobody should forget that everyone is in the same situation as they are, this pandemic is a problem of the whole world and even though everyone has their own perspectives and their own set of problems rooting from this, people should remember to hold each other up and support each other. Inspire each other and help each other. As people, we must move on from this together and continue to strive, looking for solutions to every problem and eventually recover, because even if the path has many bumps and obstacles, no one must ever walk alone. Together, with the people’s will and force as one, the fight will be fought and even though some battles are sadly lost, the war has yet to finish.