Isn’t it exhausting?

By Joshua Corcuera

 

I can’t tell what year is it anymore — whether is it 2020 or 2021. Last year was a dreadful year and it’s simply lamentable that the same can be said with the present year as if nothing has changed.

When we welcomed 2021, we were filled with optimism and positivity just as we were supposed to be when celebrating the new year. Three months on, and pessimism is lurking around the corner. In these past few days, there was a spike of daily reported cases of the highly contagious coronavirus. Many were fearful not only because of the illness, but also of the possibility of another strict lockdown. No one can blame them because, candidly speaking, isn’t the situation we find ourselves in exhausting?

When classes were first suspended in the early days of the pandemic, students like me stayed at home filled with hopes that normalcy will return in a matter of weeks or months. But it’s been a year and it’s undoubtedly exhausting to stay this long inside a secluded, though secured, shelter. With barely any other choice, students and educational institutions were forced to hold classes online. And although online classes had its share of advantages, it cannot be denied that it is, at the same time, tiring and wistful. On one side, it is tiring for both students and teachers because modules and activities piled up; on the other side, it is wistful because who knows whether we will see our blockmates and teachers again physically. Not to forget that many students face issues with either a slow internet connection or a lack of equipment for online classes. Somehow, I’m still lucky to have both, although my laptop is already enjoying its final moments.

Before 2020 ended, my friends and I chatted about whether or not face-to-face classes would resume the following semester. I told them that there’s a good chance for us to go back to school — I was wrong. During that time until early 2021, speculations of relaxed restrictions were circulating as many thought that the worst is over. When I went outside to buy necessities one time, it seemed like everything is already back to normal. Many people flock to markets and shopping malls, others go to work and public spaces. This feeling of an imminent return to normalcy is self-explanatory and ubiquitous. After all, it is exhausting to stay inside our homes for several months, isn’t it? To add one more thing, some universities in the Philippine capital were allowed to hold limited face-to-face classes in certain degree programs. This made me think, with cheerfulness, that the safe resumption of physical classes is all but certain next semester. Sadly, it seems that I’ll be wrong a second time.

As I write this piece, curfews would be reinstated, some establishments would be closed, certain people were not allowed to go outside — it’s 2020 once more. It’s lamentable that these measures still occurred despite most of the world gradually returning to a state of normalcy. It’s frustrating that despite the arrival of hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses, cases are still rising to alarming heights. It’s deplorable that despite the efforts and cooperation of the masses to contain the virus, the threat of being infected is still alive. There must be something wrong, and we must admit it, whether we like it or not.

If we were to genuinely recover from the bombardment of coronavirus cases, we need to acknowledge our shortcomings instead of blaming the ordinary people who — in most cases, if not all — try their best not to infect others. After all, no one wants to get sick especially by a highly contagious illness that can affect their loved ones and be a cause of their untimely and painful demise. Thus, it is a non sequitur if we would assume that the ordinary person is reckless because everyone is trying not to harm others. Instead, we must listen to the people especially experts and those in the frontlines of battling the pandemic. Had we — and our leaders — listened to them last year with an open mind, maybe things were not supposed to be this terrible. Maybe a safe balik-eskwela is certain next school year, maybe more people can safely go back to work and recover from the economic desperation the pandemic has presented.

But it’s just a maybe. Despite this, let us be better so that, at the very least, we could welcome 2022 without the need of wearing face masks, without the need to distance from one another, without the need to avoid crowds. Because we’re all exhausted of this feeling of seclusion and isolationism, right?

We find ourselves walking on a road — a long and perilous one. But however arduous and seemingly endless the path we find ourselves in, let us hope that it leads toward safety and comfort.