A massive exhaustion was what this year has brought us.
The clock ticked 12 midnight during the 1st of January—people were merry-making. Fireworks filled the sky with myriads of colors and everyone hoped and prayed for a year of blessings, opportunities and of course happiness. But everything went the opposite way around. Forest fires. Civic threats. Earthquakes. Floods. The worst, COVID-19—the pandemic.
Who would have thought that the year everyone prayed for brought so much disaster and despair to the world? Although many countries had sought for different solutions, the pandemic still brought worries to the lives of many—countless deaths, losing of job opportunities, hunger, depression and a lot more.
The world has trembled in fear, locked in the assumed comfort of their homes. But never did they know that the comfort they thought that their homes could provide was tarnished by the unfathomable problems that piled one by one as the pandemic continues to slaughter the “normal” of the world in exchange for today’s “NEW NORMAL”.
The NEW NORMAL has created vast changes within the lives of people in an instant. In a blink of an eye, the accessories we wear are replaced by masks and face shields. Our planned summer getaways were pushed to halt. Our social, professional and academic endeavors have been limited within the virtual realm. Others have completely adapted to the changes but there are also few who have suffered. Nevertheless, they still continue to create possibilities for themselves to sustain with living. Thus, the spirit of humanity’s resolve.
Humans as we are, amidst hardships and life adversaries, tend to keep on fighting to see the glitters in the dark unknown. Let us keep in mind that the pandemic has also brought up things that even us would have not able to do and experience during the normal world that we grew into. During the battle with covid-19 some of us found ourselves back in the warmth of our families; experience new things and hobbies that we didn’t know we could do within the limits of the closed walls of our home; and most especially we have understood the value and found the meaning of the people around us and of life.
It is indeed a fact that this devastating problem has happened and turned our routine and our lives in the exact opposite of where we wanted it to be, but we should not let the few positive things and circumstances that has happened during the course of this catastrophe be hidden away by the raging fear in our minds and hearts. Even if the goodness and positivity that we experience within this pitch-black situation is little and fragile, let this be the fuel that will ignite the possibilities that everything that has occurred this year will end. Believe even in the tiniest hope that sparks in our hearts and let it dwell and resonate hope in this era of fear and catastrophe.
By Gladys L. Galido