November 16, 2020
by Luche Pilongo
The time we live in will one day become history. This is always the case, certainly, but the coronavirus epidemic has made people, perhaps more aware than any event, that its presence will be remembered in the future, and this bizarre sensation has forced many to capture the ephemera. Many people write Quarantine Diaries to track down what happens during the pandemic and somehow to vent things out. They also thought that this is an important moment in history and we are at it right now and we have the ability to record it. As the virus continues to spread and confine people primarily to their homes, many are filling the pages of their papers with their experiences, occurrences, and realizations of living in a pandemic. The diaries, blogs, websites, essays, drawings, and any other forms of writing are numbered with words and pictures: purpose and meaning of their life, questions about the future, concerns about the present, life realizations, and lessons.
People are posting their diaries, letters, and photos on social media to ease the longingness and others create bonds to draw their scenery, ideal place to be quarantined, and some even published books related to it. As I write in the comfort of my home for the past 9 months, my family and I set our basic priorities and budgets strictly for our basic needs such as food and medicine and stayed at home to avoid getting sick. I realized the unbearable heaviness of grief and death and it taught us to be self-reliant. To end up more autonomous, you have to induce to know yourself on a new level. At this level, you’ll figure out that self-reliance is coming from being put of fear. It stuns you into inspiring yourself and arousing your covered up potential. It makes you realize that this was never anything to fear, but a vital portion of your life. Self-reliance ends once you at last permit yourself to meet the individual you’re completely competent of getting to be. That you simply can live along with what you possess and without having a delay to inquire to offer assistance in the event that you wish.
The ecosystem that includes the political, economic, social, ecological environment is affected. The Covid-19 pandemic taught us the cost of freedom, the liberty to move, to be with those we adore, to stay in dignity and security, for ourselves and the ones around us, and from our loved ones and how every action we do can have consequences and possible outcomes. Through the struggles we had, it teaches us the significance of spotting the real cause of all our groups and economies, our political parties and governments, our nearby civic institutions and our global agencies, our conventions and ideologies, and all our other systems: particularly, to serve human wishes and functions.
As I take a seat every day, pen in hand, hoping that as soon as the perfect words come to my mind, my imaginations will flow smoothly and it provided me peace and solace and since then, I’ve been trying to write my insights and thoughts on papers such as making poems, short essays and photo essays about the things I miss. Writing can provide information, share opinions, suggestions, and statements on the issues we face today and it can also be therapeutic such as in a way of expressing our fears, hopes, and joys. It can help us understand the world and our place in it. Writing can help us think about what is happening in our life and come up with new ideas and it is not just a task but talent and passion that should be valued, nurtured, and loved, because our love for writing can be passed on to the next generation and writing will improve and flourish in our generation. Future historians may also look again at the journals, essays, and artwork that regular humans are creating now to inform the story of existence all through the coronavirus.
“What makes history is people who write some stuff or keep some pictures and this is how we communicate across centuries.”-Frank Herron.
Now, the decision lies to everyone to those who want to record this history- Do we want to take part in the history and narrate our lessons and realizations throughout the pandemic? What did the Coronavirus teach us and how did it change our lives?