MENTAL WELLBEING

While the stocks have been a concern for various sectors of the economy, while the economy has been a concern for global volatility, while the job has been a concern for employees, while food and shelter have been a concern for the middle class, Opportunity has been a major concern for students during this period.

2020 is an unfortunate disruption and the pandemic has predominated it followed by a tandem of other issues. It is normal for us to feel messed up. If it makes any better, it ‘did’ get all messed up for me. We are much aware of the online opportunities and resources, but the question is ‘to what extent?’. Does it alternate offline learning? Let’s face it, deep inside are we really satisfied? As time passes by, I was almost alienated by moving in online full-time. If you ask me if it were a total waste of time, I will completely disagree because the period of 3 months in lockdown was an eye-opener for me. I figured out what I was doing as a law student. I eventually got adapted to this new phase of life. This phase of generation is like starting a new book. Only that we weren’t prepared to start it, and now we are facing difficulty adapting to the new chapter. Students who secured internships, students awaited to start law school, the freshers, students who were graduating, the graduate students of 2020, and many more were shattered by the unforeseen coming. The fact that we were lacking the panacea made the situation worse. I understand, I’ve dictated the fact far enough. What’s next?

As I mentioned, we are in a new phase of generation we weren’t prepared to start. It is normal to feel abnormal while trying to adapt to the ‘new normal’. I am here to say that ‘I am also the victim’ of the pandemic. You aren’t in the spotlight facing a breakdown. Let’s disgorge as much negativity as we can to start adapting to the new phase. We must support each other to safeguard students who may be your friend or family to fall into the trap of ‘mental illness’. 33% of students always feel lonely. Now that we are shifting online, there are a million things we could do to beat ‘self-isolation’. Being proactive can be about developing a skill, learning something new, and one step forward to adapting to the new normal. At the same time, what happens when there is ‘too much’ of shifting online? ‘Taking a break’ is no harm and the world doesn’t fall apart doing so. Encourage yourself often and don’t hesitate to reward yourself for the work you’ve done. It can be a matter of 5-minute work, 15 minutes, or an hour, what matters is that you’ve learned something which you wouldn’t have if you had chosen to Netflix and chill instead. You are doing great facing normality. Keep going…

SWAMINI MURALI