How did we get here?

We had every single minute of every single day planned — making notes, studying, solving past papers, even “rest” periods! In short, it was GRIND SEASON and all of us were ready to get into a study lockdown. Little did we know, we were about to be thrust into a completely different kind of lockdown.

“I heard the board exams might get canceled?!”, said one; “NO WAY dude!”, said ten others, laughing off the rumor. However, rumors became a reality and our perfectly planned schedules were rendered failures. 2 years of hard work had gone to waste, and our last chance to redeem ourselves was snatched from us in just one night. “How are we going to be awarded grades?”, “Will prelims be taken into account?”, “What about university offers?” — we had a hundred questions and more, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. The real problem lay deep in our intolerance for uncertainty. As humans, we crave certainty. We find solace in knowing how the future will be, be it the next day or the next month. However, the rather unpleasant irony is that the only certainty in life is uncertainty. Therefore, the inability to deal with uncertainty eventually leads us down a spiral of negative emotions.

And boy, was the spiral steep! Shock quickly turned to denial and anger. Hysteria spread amongst us, faster than any virus could, inciting fear and rage. “How could they cancel the exams we’d worked so hard for?”, “Why did I bother wasting my effort?”, “The school’s marking is too strict”. “Unfair” seemed to be the word on the tip of everybody’s tongue. To say we were anxious would be an understatement. But could you really blame us? The very world seemed to be falling apart, with wildfires, assassinations, deaths of idols, isolation, and, to top it all off, an excessively sensationalized global pandemic; Earth was turning into a version of hell. Of course, people were on edge. Of course, the students who had spent countless hours, days, months studying — when they could have been living life to our fullest — were unhappy. Of course, parents worried about their children’s wasted efforts and health were frantically contacting each other, the teachers and the school to find some support.

But then again, it’s our instinctive nature to point fingers at others, to find a scapegoat to blame to relieve ourselves of our woes. Be it CIE or IBO, the decision was out of our hands. What was in our hands, however, was how hard we tried for the internal school assessments, how much work we were willing to put in throughout the course of the program (not just the last 3 months), and how we reacted in these times of distress. After all, society is a house of cards; only one weak link is required to bring us all crashing down…

Where are we now?

All was not a catastrophe though. Eventually, anger turned into acceptance, and stubbornness turned into adaptation. Uncertainty certainly doesn’t guarantee doom. There comes a point when we’re falling down that spiral of negativity, and then we realise, “Wait a second, there’s really nothing I can do about this anymore”. As much as we hate to admit it, we realise that sometimes, we are powerless — there’s no point moping over something that is beyond our control. There’s a small but significant difference between acquiescence and surrender – the former is done unwillingly, but the latter, willingly. Most of us realised that the tried and tested way of coping with uncertainty is surrender. This grand, epiphanic moment of surrender gives us the power to find peace with what we don’t have control over, to find happiness and contentment despite all that we are uncertain about. It is the realisation that we have control over neither the past nor the future, but only the present. How we want to feel and respond to ‘disasters’ that we are thrown into is really up to us.

Where are we going?

With that, we must look forward, past the cancellations of our boards and the impenetrable confines of social isolation’s invisible cage. This mess has left many of us wondering, “What next?” For some IB students, that may be giving their all in what little they have remaining in their control: their IA’s. For others, it may be pursuing a passion, or perhaps ticking something off their post-IG/IB checklist. Maybe, we should all revel in some of the bliss that one would usually expect when exams get cancelled.

These unprecedented times present us with an opportunity that not many have had. An opportunity that we — not just the 10th and 12th graders, but all of us stuck at home — would be best poised to seize. What do we do with this expanse of time?

• Don’t lose touch with yourself and your surroundings. Make a schedule or a routine of productive things to do, to keep yourself occupied.
• Switch things up now and then. Try something new. Learn a new skill, cook, discover a new genre of music or film, try your hand at some art.
• Keep friends and family close. Spend more time with your parents and siblings, socialise with friends online. Interpersonal relationships make us up, use this time to strengthen them. Remember, physical distancing does not mean social distancing.
• Educate. As dull as it sounds, don’t stop learning because school stopped. Experiment with an online course (edX and Coursera have numerous options), learn a new language, keep reading. 
• Take time to slow things down — reconnect with yourself and just take a break. We need this in this fast-paced world.

Tides go up, and down. The sun and moon rise and set. Seasons come and go. So will this. Hard times will pass, things will get better again — but till then, we must adapt. After all, this is just a part of the circle of life.

-Sharvani Sivakumar and Samud Shetty