A person who finishes school faces the harsh reality of life. He's always constantly failing. But whenever he achieves something, it always takes the turn for its worst.
If I were to ask you about the year 2020, we all have different opinions about it. Well, I thought this year was going to be like any other year. Even had big plans for the year. I wanted to go traveling, wanted to try to do some projects relating to photography, and just try out new things. In terms of college, this was my second last term before I finished my certificate. I manage to pass all my subjects. So all is good. This is the first time ever in my life that I have not failed a single subject in education.
So, I had two subjects which I needed to do. I can really sense the finish line. All I needed to do was to carry on with this momentum. But the only problem is that I did not enjoy any of these two subjects which I was going to do. One of them was painting, followed by an arts and craft sort of subject.
A piece of work which I had to do for the painting class. It's not really the greatest piece of painting to mankind. However, I like to look at these pictures to see how far I've progress in my journey. Sometimes when I want to give up, I always have to remember am I doing this.
Moving onto the arts and craft design subject. It was like a subject which you did in primary or secondary school. I thought it this subject was alright, the lecturer who taught this knew what he was doing. This is one of the rare times that I have a good relationship with a lecturer in the course. But I was just not please with myself because the lecturer really pushed me to my best, but the work I did, did not meet with his expectations.
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To be honest with you, this took me a night to complete. I honestly forgot about the deadline. I mean, you can already tell that it looks like a 7-year-old person who designed this. This, to be honest, was the level at which I can produce. I still remember showing my lecturers and the judges this work and I wasn't really that embarrassed. Yes, I got certain looks from people. Yes, I knew that I was the laughing stock, but I couldn't care less what people think about me. I still remember the reaction from the lecturers who were the judges. Two of the lecturers taught me, followed by the Head of Program for the art department. They looked at my work for a good minute, and they told me to move on. I just can tell that they were done with me.
In terms of college, I manage to pass all of my subjects again. I knew that I just needed to handle one more term before all of this is over. I had moments where I wanted to give up. But I knew that I had an end goal. I even met some of my future lecturers for my diploma. I'll tell you something I knew that was the goal which I wanted to do.
But a moment which I still remember from that year was definitely the pandemic. Covid-19. We all knew that the pandemic changed everyone's life no matter who you are. February 28th was a date that stuck to me for a good two years. That was the day I dropped off my father at the airport. I still remember his famous last words: "I'll see you, next month mate". I honestly thought I would see him. Let's be honest, we thought Covid was going to be like the flu and there won't be a pandemic. Oh, how we were all wrong. I remember that when it got to the month of March, everyone was panicking. Countries such as New Zealand, China, etc, were all going into lockdown. It was a matter of time before we were going to be going into lockdown. Just as the government announced that the country was going into lockdown, it really felt like World War 2. Everyone was panic buying, All education places needed to go into online mode. Workplaces needed to work from home. Unless you're considered as an essential worker, you needed to go to work as normal. All social activities such as dining out, meeting with our friends, and traveling, were not allowed. We all had to stay at home. For me, personally, I'm used to staying at home. But sometimes I don't like to have restrictions in life. I like to have my freedom to do anything, but thanks to this pandemic, it was all taken away from everyone.
I was thinking to myself, that this lockdown would only last for like two weeks to four weeks. But how we're all wrong again. I felt that 2020 was really going to be a good year. I had plans for me to travel to Japan, followed by some side projects which I was going to do in the coming months, and finally, graduate from my course. Let's just see how it really plans out.
During lockdown, my normal would consists me of getting up, checking my phone, eat, chat with friends online, play games, and catch up with friends online. Fuck me, the first weeks of lockdown felt weird. But it's nice to know that you get to stay at home. Yes, other people can't afford to stay at home, but just glad that I was able to. During lockdown, it gave me sometime to reflect on life. Especially with things I took for granted. I felt that before lockdown I didn't really did a lot of things. I knew that I wanted to a lot of things. But I just didn't do it. I wanted to go travelling with friends. I wanted to go on a road trip with friends. Even the simple things such as going out was gone. Because sometimes when you go out and explore the world, good things come to you.
I was able to keep my mental state in check. It was a bit tough especially with my father being in another country to you. Yes, we all have different problems. But it's important to find a way to overcome it. I mean, we all have ways with dealing with stress. For me, I just played guitar, played games, and just spoke with friends online. It's quite important to keep my mental state in check because it's not easy staying at home all the time. Some people liked to go out, but for me, I would describe myself more as an ambivert. If people know me personally, they get to see the true me. People I don't like, I just don't really entertain them. I mean, once you get to know me better as a person, sometimes I have days where I'm on point and have days where I'm just not feeling it. It really depends all on my mood.
I mean in a weird way, thanks to the pandemic, I became a lot more introverted in a way. I use to be that person who gets the centre on attention, well, sometimes I can be like that if I want to, but I really enjoy being by myself at times. Being by myself just allows to focus on myself. Yes, it might be a bit selfish, but it's important to check-up on yourself once in a while. I see it like this. You don't want to show the bad side of a person right? Because they can get a number of reactions on how you are acting. That's why I feel like just take care of yourself so people will get to see that positive side of you.
You can say it's a difficulty, but learning from home has its pros and cons. Pros: you can stay at home. Cons: doing practical class at home is not easy. Subjects such as an arts and craft subject can be difficult. Because it requires you get some sort of supervision from the lecturer. But I'm just glad that there's a way I can overcome it.
Once the pandemic is over, I'm sure we all be happy that almost everything has been returned to normal in a way. I guess the day I get to see my father is the day that I don't want to take anything for granted.
