Hello Everyone and welcome back to Writing In Full Color! This will be my first blog post written as an e-learner instead of a student in a classroom. While there are so many things negatively changing with our lives and our world right now, I think it’s important to take a look at the things that don’t have to change, or things that are changing for the better.
Before COVID-19, I felt like I was moving 100 miles per hour. Homework kept me up until 1am and in addition to being a full time student, I have a job and am the co-founder of a non-profit organization. I felt like I didn’t have a second to even take a deep breath. And then all the sudden, it’s like I got in a crash and everything came to a screeching halt. All of a sudden I had copious amounts of the one thing I never had before: time.
As of today, March 30th 2020, I have been inside my house (aside from walking my dog and literally stepping outside on my porch) for 17 days. And in those 17 days, there hasn’t been a single thing that has been due which is a very odd thing for someone like me. I have still done all of my schoolwork and kept up with my assignments, but it is not the same at all. I have been keeping myself busy by writing, catching up on TV and sleep, hanging out with my family, and talking with my friends through facetime. For the first time in my life, I actually have the time to work on a major writing project consistently! But still, something is off.
As of March 12, 2020, I hated school. Hearing my alarm go off to get up for school was like torture, and I was just waiting and counting down the days until spring break, the light at the end of the tunnel. At that point I wasn’t even phased when one teacher after another handed one assignment after another and told me that it was all due before break. Most people tell me that I’m an optimist, and I generally agree, except when it comes to school. It’s hard for me to find the silver lining in the thing that consumes my life with busy work. But 18 days later, I’ve found layers and layers of the silver lining.
If I can hope for one thing that we as humans take away from this, is what we didn’t realize we were so fortunate to have before. After all this pandemic has taken from us, it leaves us with one thing: hope. Hope for a brighter future. And going into that future I hope to never take for granted seeing my friends at school everyday, going to my grandparents’ house, driving around and listening to music, going to the movies, giving someone a hug, and simply existing as normal. There was so much silver lining in my life that I had trouble recognizing, before but like the song “Let Her Go” by Passenger says, “you only miss the sun when it starts to snow.” So I hope just as we are now finally able to see the silver lining in our lives, we find the silver lining in these dark times.
Thank you for reading! Stay safe and healthy.
-Alaina
Writing in Full Color 