Photo by me
Solitude
Ding! The bell rang and left an echo on the school grounds, signaling a start of a new monday, and as if in cue, sudents sprinted and stumbled upon chairs, breaking their organized positions. The teacher came with a slow and relaxed gait and you can tell by his form that he was a professional teacher just from seeing him walk that way. He bowed courteously and momentarily, that we didn't even have enough time to stand up in our chairs to greet him, for as he spoke those words I could never even fathom, came out of his voice, he said; "Classes would be dismissed for the entire week."
Rain fell like a waterfall, pouring in streams with deafening sounds, beads of water escaped from the roof, forming tears in my window. I listened as the downpour slowly quieted in my room. This was how my days where spent, leisurely and idly passing time away with nothing to worry about. I would occasionally read the contemporary Japanese literature, which is most of them are Haruki Murakami's works. Staying late up at night and playing video games, watching anime series or movies, I was living a carefree and leisurely days.
News spread about the Corona Virus, with its numerous symptoms, and deadly effects. The virus can infect other people in close proximity, so in a matter of weeks after the first cases of Covid-19 came to light, it began to spread like wildfire. Soon it became a global pandemic, that requires many safety protocols all over the globe. And so Quarantine was established in less than a month after our dismissal, I did not think that things would escalate at this scale. It was then that has given birth to a new normal way of living, one that a anyone would call a hellish and unhealthy lifestyle.
Days became months, and headlines about Covid continues to spread. People are not wearing mask, and are going outside as if in revolt or just rejecting the idea that there was a global pandemic around them. I have seen many people act so uneducated and irresponsible at the news, which is why at that point I wasn't surprised with the increasing numbers of Covid patients here in the Philippines. I thought to myself that we deserved it, like a sort of divine punishment from God, using the natural forces of nature as his instrument for divine retribution against these utter foolish humans, who have not changed in its entire existence. I watched in scorn, as the news broadcasted yet another update on the rising scale of Covid patients, I just hoped that something kills me before it gets into our area.
Online learning, felt nothing like a place to learn. This isn't to say that the teachers did nothing to do their responsibilities, but more so on the system, on not being a reliable means of education. Most students including myself, had a hard time keeping up with the lesson, we either had device failures, internet problems, or just in general unmotivated to study and learn anything at all. This new way of learning did not feel the same to students, it was like a different norm from some other culture. Adaptation did not come easy for any of us in this new world.
Enclosed in 4 squares with close proximity, my room had a grain of film, lifeless, soulless, like an abandoned apartment. The cracks on walls where like a spray painted graffiti, cobwebs clung to the corner, slowly but surely infecting the entire room. Occasionally you would see roaches seeping through the cracks on the walls, rats would sprint like a bullet which was evident in its leavings. The room reflected who I was, growing cold and slowly rotting away like a dead flesh of body.
Even so, I had made friends with this new world. My new classmates became my friends, some of the most funniest and caring people in this world. We sometimes held meetings, or just chatted the time away, and with them I felt at ease, brimming with hope that it wasn't the end for me. I would be lying when I say that everything about online class was just unenjoyable, because in there I found people who actually accepted who I was, and helped me with my studies. I was someone who is just unsociable, so when I took that first step into talking to them, everything just fell right in place, and as if in harmony we all felt like we had met each other before, like long lost friends. In this day and age, everyone needed a shoulder to cry on, or just some company, and I feel like these people are what saved me from the most boring and worst year that I have experienced.
