For many families in different parts of the world, the coronavirus pandemic came like a disaster and destroyed their lives. Thousands of people died, lost their kith and kin, their jobs, and more. All this is very disheartening. Listening to those heartbreaking incidents, I really felt like crying.
In pre-COVID times, when I would get up in the morning, among the first things I would do would be to find or prepare something to eat, and then I would ask my siblings what they needed to do for school. I am the eldest of the three children in the family, and so I am responsible for ensuring that my siblings are doing well in school. But because of the virus, we haven’t been going to school for quite some time now. So, these days, I and my siblings do things together. If someone gets stuck, you just ask, and we can help each other.
Being confined to the home these days, I watch the news when I feel exhausted. Coronavirus and its current status are the news that I follow the most. Often, I binge-watch historical T.V series. Netflix and Prime have become my good friends. I do not know if this is a good thing, but this is how I have been spending much of my time at home these days.
When my mother first experienced some mild symptoms of COVID we were all confined in our rooms. After a week or two, my father showed the same symptoms, and that was troublesome. After that, we were on our own. We had no one except my elder cousin, who stayed with us the whole time. Living in the same house, I couldn’t ask my mother to cook a lip-licking dish. I missed my mother’s angry bickering and my father’s quiet minor suggestions. Staring at the dining table, I used to think about the moments we sat together eating and laughing, my father’s interesting life stories, which he usually narrated after dinner. How we admiringly looked at our father and listening to his tales! There was no one now to come and wake me up, to ask about my homework or about what I ate. I felt very lonely and negative. Many emotions went through my head. I felt angry, shocked and depressed at the same time.
My mother was quarantined for around 14 days, but my father remained in isolation longer. I felt really sad about my father sitting with his hands on his head, depressed. I felt like bumping into my parents’ room and hugging them, but that would have been inappropriate. I really felt terrible about my two younger sisters, who were deprived of their mother’s care and father’s love at such a young age.
I felt like a grown-up. I noticed a sense of responsibility towards the house, my younger siblings, and my parents. Rather than being reputed for laziness, I did all the household chores with my cousin. I did all I could, and even more. The good thing was that everyone was at home. We all were restricted, but at least we were together the whole day. To be honest, I had never stayed at home this much. I was always out doing something, but nowadays, I’m mostly in my room and the living room. I was not always home earlier, so I never really spent a lot of time with my family.
But during the lockdown, I gave myself a chance to really sit down with my family and reconnect our emotions and talk about ourselves, which we never properly did before. I learned to enjoy the little things that we take for granted. Here was an opportunity to think about and work on oneself. I played a lot of games with my siblings. Together, we recounted memories of our childhood. I felt that in the past, I had missed out on them. But now I really feel close to everyone in the family. My sisters want a promising future ahead of them and are really inspired to work and make their dreams come true, making me really, very happy. The younger one keeps me excited and laughing. She is a very talkative girl! Her little cheerful chats have really kept me high these past few weeks.
During these recent months, I suppose there have been many cases of families reuniting, with members of the family sharing about things that other family members didn’t know, sharing about things they did when they weren’t home much of the time. I think before the phase we are now going through, many people lived under the same roof but actually in different worlds. Many families lived in the same house, but they did not spend enough time with each other. Because of being busy with work and traveling, many people didn’toften communicate with their families. But now because many of us are confined to our homes, there are chances for family members to come together and be in each other’s company. I think people should avail of this because families are one of the most important things we have in times like these.
Time flies. It has been a very long time since I last sat with my friends in a classroom, enjoying every period, laughing like idiots, playing on the grounds, and a lot more. But despite all that has happened and everything that has upset me, I am learning to change my attitude. I would say that it is up to us how we adapt to the environment. COVID, undoubtedly, changed everything. Like us, the whole world is changed.
Be safe. Take Care. May God bless us.
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