The New Quarantine Life

21^st September, Day 3, Semester 5!

It has been over 6 months since our lives stopped – But not exactly. February 29^th, 2020, the government of Pakistan announced shutting down of all educational institutions of Pakistan. This meant a long never ending holiday for me! Yaay!

This was the first time ever I was staying at home with nothing due. I wasn’t supposed to go anywhere, I didn’t have any assignments due, and most importantly I didn’t have to leave the comfort of my bed! Best days of my life had just started.

Two weeks later, my university announced the commencement of online classes. Our attendance policy was relaxed, so we all laughed! The fun had already begun. Managed through the rest of the semester online with dozing off in half of my 10 am classes while taking the rest of the classes in every possible room at my home – even the rest rooms.

One month down and the fun had started to fade. All the food eateries were shut down and there was a weird tension created around everyone. I was practically on my vacations – but I wasn’t supposed to meet the outside world; it was more like a zombie takeover.

By the time summers arrived, our lives had completely changed. We had turned into weird shaped potatoes with no motivation, our days had turned into nights and 4am was the new 10pm. Life was okay. Or maybe not. Our university had cancelled our exams, batch of 2020 graduated online, and the Cambridge had just posted (read: cancelled) the CAIE examinations. If you wanted to see your crush, well bad luck! 

If this things were normal – everyone had plans for this time of the year. People had to get married, some had to travel, and boring people like me were looking towards internships to have a better hands-on experience. But well, life has its own way!

Taking a quick jump to September when the day was finally arriving – everything was supposed to go back to normal. From the 15^th of September educational institutes were to be reopened. We had never been more excited.

18^th September, Day 2, 5^th semester: 20 Covid cases reported at my university – around 15 other educational institutes (including mine) closed for sanitation and re-enforcing the SOPs. We’re back to an online semester.

No one’s happy this time. It's like hitting the stop button but looking for a rewind. It was all too much, we had learnt our lessons. There’s a cry for physical classes and petition to be more careful – if only life could go back to normal.

21^st September, Day 3, Semester 5.