Coronavirus is something everyone should be familiar with in 2020. The novel coronavirus is said to have originated in China. It has caused a pandemic that is still ongoing. The impact coronavirus has had on me is no less than it has on any other individual. Coronavirus has exposed me to a lot of new experiences, some of them which I did not exactly want to experience. It has give me a lot of “firsts” in my life. Because of the coronavirus, it is my first time moving an entire semester’s worth of classes from offline to online. It is my first time sleeping at 7 am everyday without having to worry about waking up for class on time. It is my first time getting laid off my job not by my own will. While things seem extremely grim (some places more grim than others), I believe that this experience was a good learning experience for everyone in this world.
The most important part of my life that changed due to coronavirus has to be my educational experience. Because all of my classes are now online, it is more important than ever to take the reign of my own learning. The professors and TAs are not there to walk me through every single topic of my courses anymore. Regardless of whether or not they are there in person to teach it or not, it has become even more of my responsibility to learn the topic sufficiently on my own. This has been a very difficult transition for me. I realized that I have been spoiled too much throughout my academic years. I expect things to be handed to me. I expect assignment questions to be gone over in class (similar, probably not exact), and quiz questions to be covered in lectures from previous days. Overall, this unfortunate event that coronavirus placed me in forced me to become more responsible as a student.
Among the new changes that occurred in my life, the other biggest change is the fact that I am no long employed in my part-time job. Having moved out of my parents’ place since the beginning of the school year to reside with my brother, I had taken on a lot of financial responsibilities. The lay off was definitely not helpful in helping me pay for my bills on time. However, some institutions placed waives on certain payments in response to COVID-19, which I am very grateful for. My future plans regarding income are pretty obscure, but I hope to strive through it (but surely struggle).
I think the coronavirus made me realize that people are more selfish than I originally thought they were. The nail in the coffin for this viewpoint of mine happened when I learned about all the people that were stocking and hogging unnecessary amounts of cleaning supplies and toilet papers for no reason. I personally do not understand the motive behind this decision. It is not unreasonable to buy a good amount of them in case for a prolonged emergency, but surely people do not need to fill up their entire garage with said supplies. The situation gets worse when people who do these cruel acts proceed to making them worse by reselling them. Ridiculous. However, things are not ALL bad. I also learned that people can be very kind and understanding. This can be observed through the “kapuna hours” set in place by many places in Hawaii in an effort to provide the elderly people a safe environment to carry out their dailies duties. I think this is very sweet that many people actually adhere to and respect these hours. Overall, the onset of coronavirus across the globe has been a crazy, but meaningful experience for me.