It feels like just yesterday that we were walking around school whining about our assignments and how monotonous our lives had become. In hindsight, that was probably an overstatement as, four months later, life is far from the delight it once was. Waking up every morning only to spend hours and hours in front of a screen just doesn’t feel the same. However, with the status quo worsening with every passing day, what once was normal now seems to be farther away than ever.
This whirlwind of events forced us to resort to online schooling. The concept of online schooling has its fair share of skeptics and, candidly speaking, it was far from ideal when it started. The seismic shift from screen time being a mere luxury to its being an absolute necessity has been quite an experience. Even though talking to my teachers and friends through the Internet helps create a facade of normalcy in my life, I can’t help but wonder how good it would feel to be back within those pastel walls of the classrooms. I can’t help but crave the chaos of the playground, the chitchat on the benches and even the eerie silence of the library. The occasional phone calls and text messages with my friends don’t even come close to compensating for the fact that we’re spending what could’ve been some of the best days of our lives locked in our homes and away from the people we’ve grown to love and admire so much.
But we can only cling to what could’ve been for so long. Despite being vastly different from actual schooling, online classes have been a breath of fresh air, a breeze of change from the ever-so-monotonous lockdown. They have managed to get me back into the learning spirit and prepare me for the tests (academic and in life) that await me at the end of all this chaos. Online schooling isn’t much, but it’s better than huddling under a blanket all day and pondering the disarray that the world is in.
In acting entitled and whining about online classes, it is necessary to acknowledge that attending them is a privilege that very few get to enjoy. Unlike myself, most students in Nepal have been deprived of education for the past four months and this loss could prove to be catastrophic for their development. Hence, I look at online classes as a great opportunity to keep learning and exploring myself and in no way do I take the effort that the school and the teachers have put in for granted.
I would’ve never thought about a situation like this that day when we last were walking around t school. But online classes have now become, as people like to put it, “our new normal”, and it’s been quite a learning experience as we’ve grown from mere school-goers into strong-willed and mature people who’ve managed to keep pushing forward and sustain through even a global pandemic. To be honest, I didn’t have high expectations for online classes to start with, but I’m glad to say that they have pleasantly surprised me and I swell with pride at how much it’s helped me grow and excel even in the toughest of times.
