I believe that education is really important, and something that is unarguably beneficial in preparing us for the dreaded “real world”. We start our school lives young and naive, and indulge in simple activities like finger painting, cooking without fire, games, song, and dance. These experiences gradually change as we progress from preschool to high school- where we are expected to learn excessive amounts of content whilst also pursuing extracurricular interests. Let’s keep this in mind.

Currently, it is as if our lives are on pause. The world will never be the same. Distancing ourselves has unequivocally proven to be a challenge, and I want to recount my experience in a time that was undeniably devastating for the international community.

I live an hour away from school and consequently spend more than 10 hours away from home on a weekday. As soon as I would arrive back home, I would freshen up and head to my room, open my laptop and start spending time working, studying or more commonly wasting time on different social media platforms. I would eat dinner at 9, go back to doing something or the other in my room and then sleep. I barely spoke to members of my family. Nothing was wrong, it was honestly just a lack of time.

Reflecting on the past few months, I realise that I can now prioritise. Initially, I had prepared an intricate timetable that dictated what I did for each waking hour of three weeks of break- but this schedule was futile, impractical and just frustrating. In the first week, my productivity had hit an all-time low and I barely managed to finish anything I intended to. Suddenly, self-realisation dawned upon me and I realised that I did have more time and did not necessarily need to be doing academic work 24/7. I was unnecessarily beating myself up for being useless and unproductive- but I realised that I had this time for a reason.

Since December 2018, I had been somewhat reclusive, success-oriented and focused on goals I set for myself that may occasionally be unrealistic. Ever since I started studying for my IGCSEs a year ago, a kind of lifestyle has consumed me that makes me feel terrible if I have free time. Only recently, I realised that I had not watched a single TV show since that winter. TV shows were something I was quite unhealthily obsessed with in the past, and I had formed solid opinions on what I liked and didn’t. Why did I not have the time to watch TV now? I questioned myself and realised that I did, but I chose to use that time differently and sacrificed things I loved doing. Life is now slower paced, and I finally have the time to do the things I want and previously enjoyed doing. I needed to understand that this break I had was not just a break from going to school, but a break from exerting and exhausting myself.

I didn’t care that I still hadn’t found a topic for a chemistry practical, but I did care about all these people and connecting with them during stressful times like these. Honestly, social distancing made me more social in certain ways. I truly think that I was self-isolating for over a year now, and now with this newfound time, I feel less distant from everyone, including myself. I’d almost forgotten what I liked, it took me an hour to find creators I enjoyed watching on Youtube- and even more time to find a decent movie to watch. I was so out of touch with what I liked, wanted and enjoyed, and I feel that social distancing has just given me more time to “fiND mYsELf” and get back on track.

I think the situation we’re in right now is an interesting example of why “the circle of school life” is even a concept. We need to take out some time not just for the people we love, but also to love ourselves and to do the things we love. While we’re responsibly engaging in social distancing, let’s take this time to be grateful, pamper ourselves, make the best out of whatever we can do and enjoy the merits of a slow-paced lifestyle. Here is where we come back full circle- we resort to therapeutic activities like painting, cooking simple dishes, playing traditional games, etc. These experiences defined our childhood, and are activities we participated in school a decade ago. The takeaway from this is the fact that most of us need a break from the stress that high school so kindly afflicts us with. A lot of us are running away from our tasks and assignments to dedicate time to activities we used to enjoy as young children, and that is exactly what we need to do in a time where our future is undefined.

-Rupambika Tripathy