2 months ago, Uni started up again, and it’s safe to say it’s been a little bit of a roller-coaster of emotions and actions. At times it felt like were on a little bit of a trial run (but then again, aren’t we all?)
I’ve been living in my own little bubble for the past 6 weeks and found myself in various mental states and physical situations I wouldn’t even find myself in if we were in ‘normal’ times. However, the fact is, the pandemic we find ourselves living is our normal, and we needed to do everything we can to be safe while simultaneously trying to live our lives the best we can; for uni students, the impacts this has on us is detrimental.
To begin, I believe, when we first returned to university, and freshers moved into halls, it was bound to become a corona virus positive fest. People may be arrogant and say it couldn’t of been predicted just how ‘bad’ the spike in cases could’ve been but that has to be lie. I am an MMU student and have seen the articles that were written in September about ‘locking students in’ which in the first place was wrong. But universities across the country are balancing giving students the best possible university experience and being safe as possible. There is no balance, there is no complete save way to learn that allows us to go into university and live the student lifestyle.
We’re now going back into a lockdown, and yet we can still go into university. I have no doubt that everyone is trying to be as safe as possible, and students don’t have to return to live campus teaching if they don’t feel 100% safe; but it doesn’t give me hope. I’d like to think that cases with decrease now we’re heading into a lockdown, but does the public care anymore?
For me, I’d do absolutely anything to ensure that this virus decreases to as little as possible, let’s say, in 5 years time we find out that masks didn’t help during the pandemic, it’s not an inconvenience to people who wore one during the pandemic; it’s a piece of cloth, there’s no freedom taken from you. But if we didn’t wear a mask and in 5 years we find out that masks did in fact help stop the spread of the virus; you’d feel a lot better about yourself because you wore a mask.
I’m not quite sure where this first point is really going, I just wanted to vent a few frustrations; we need to live, I understand that, but if we keep to guidelines and bring ‘R’ down, then we really can live.
Despite all this, I feel for those who are lonely. I’ve felt it. I’m not completely lonely, I have flatmates, and I went home for the first lockdown, so was surrounded by my family. Other people don’t have that privilege. Mental health in this country has been put on the back burner this year, despite the fact that mental distress has risen this year.
It’s always the same when it comes to mental health; it’s on the back of people’s minds; or they quite literally don’t talk (or possibly care) about it, until something happens. We’ve seen it with Caroline flack this year, people continue to hound others online for whatever reason.
We’ve spent months on zoom calls doing online pub quizzes and connecting with others, but have we really asked people how they are? How are they feeling? Has mental health come into the conversation in households this year at all; especially because of the pressures the pandemic has come with.
In recent weeks this has fallen on students. I’ve felt myself falling into a little bit of a hole and I’m slowing trying to crawl out of it. I’ll get there, I think that might just be the person that I am, but others won’t.
It’s so important to talk to people, to anyone, it could be about anything, but just knowing you have someone who you can talk to can make the world of difference. Find something that you enjoy, something that you can focus on during this lockdown and do it; carry on with it. I myself am back to writing blog posts and I’m also starting to meditate a few mornings a week- I have no idea if it will help me in anyway, but I’m going to find out.
This has been a rant of all rants, and quite frankly a little all over the place, but sometimes that’s all you really need to lift a least a little weight off your shoulders, and I’m already feeling it. I’m going to do everything I can to stay as positive and healthy as possible- hoping for the best.
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