Here are some reflections from our students here at Xavier School in San Juan, Philippines as part of the Global Student Stories Project A Day in my Life: living under the Covid-19 Pandemic. We hope you enjoy reading them.
A Day in my Life: Zachary 18, Xavier College San Juan, Philippines
The COVID-19 pandemic has definitely shaken our society, especially here in the Philippines. The country and government’s response to the sudden surge of cases in the Philippines was sluggish to say the least. Moreover, the distribution of supplies and food items to both ordinary citizens as well as frontliners continues to be inefficient. News of politicians choosing to label relief goods for their constituents with their names means that time was wasted instead of just handing out the relief goods as soon as possible.
More than just being saddened by the cancelation of our graduation I recognize that there are many more concerns in our country that require our attention. The shut down of businesses has truly hit our country hard, as a whole. It especially affects blue collar workers and employees who generally live on a paycheck to paycheck basis. It is immensely frustrating that the government continues to respond late to the needs of the people during this troubling time. In my case I am very grateful that my family is not one that is greatly affected by non-essential businesses being shut down during the quarantine.
I cannot begin to feel what the frontliners in our hospitals throughout the country are experiencing right now. I am thankful that I am at home safe and that all I need to do to stay safe is to follow the rules of the community quarantine. However, I have an uncle who is a doctor and is currently serving as a frontliner in PGH. Every day I pray for his well-being that he may be able to stay healthy until this pandemic ends and he is able to come home safely.
In light of all the negative effects of this pandemic there have also been little acts of kindness by ordinary people which make their way into the news. People showing that despite what’s going on in the world right now we still need to stick together and lend each other a helping hand throughout this crisis. I see Jesus in the frontliners who sacrifice their health to help people recover from the virus.
When thinking and reflecting about the future I am just flooded with emotions, namely relief, anxiety, and hopefulness. I am relieved to hear that the Philippines is starting to eliminate the COVID-19 virus, it’ll be like the light at the end of a dark tunnel. I will be overjoyed when the news comes that we may start to leave our houses again and attempt to live life as we did before the pandemic. However with this sense of relief may also come a sense of anxiety, countries like Singapore have experienced second as well as third waves of the virus and that may very well happen to the Philippines too. Lastly, the future makes me feel hopeful that from this pandemic we learn to be more prepared. Hopefully measures will be put in place to be able to help the less fortunate during the next pandemic.
Our society should learn to be able to wrap our arms around one another in a time of crisis like this. Hoarding of supplies such as alcohol and masks should no longer be a practice the next time we encounter a virus similar to this. Instead we must help our neighbor and learn to look out for one another which indirectly helps you protect yourself from the virus as well. God is calling for us to exercise the Filipino quality of “bayanihan” so that we may be able to get through this pandemic together united as a country.
A Day in my Life: Juancho 17, Xavier College San Juan, Philippines
A month into the enhanced community quarantine, everything still feels so surreal. The situation at hand has severely crippled our nation, as there are currently more than 6500 Filipinos who have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, as well as around 500 deaths no thanks to the aforementioned pandemic. However, thanks to the frontline healthcare workers, there have been close to 650 recoveries as of writing.
The repercussions of COVID-19 are endless, with many families struggling financially as multiple companies have laid off several employees as a result of the economic strain which the pandemic has caused. Personally, I feel really lucky and blessed that I still have a roof over my head and get to eat three meals a day during a time when there are countless people who can only wonder where their next meal will come from.
When the lockdown was announced, I felt anger, annoyance, and anxiety. I was angry because my senior year was cut short, but primarily because I didn’t get the chance to march during the Graduation Rites, which was my main driving force for the whole year. I was annoyed because my plans for the long summer before college had suddenly gone down the drain. Finally, I feel anxiety because UP still hasn’t released the list of accepted applicants.
All of these emotions were heightened even further over the course of the past month, albeit for very different reasons. The slow government response to the pandemic is incredibly frustrating. Their failure to immediately address the issue as early as February exacerbated the spread of the virus in our nation, and today, some of our fellow countrymen are paying for this incompetence with their lives. This isn’t to say that all politicians are inept at leading the nation, as some local government officials have truly put the needs of their city above their own, which has truly been a glimmer of hope in this otherwise dark time.
The dark and uncertain times which we now live in has no doubt strained the faith of many people across the world, myself included. After all, why would God allow such suffering and sorrow to propagate amongst his people? It got to the point that I would question why my family prayed the rosary every night, or why we would say the prayers for COVID-19 at multiple times a day. Then at one point I realized, faith is what keeps us going in this time. Faith is directly related to hope, so by praying each night, we keep hoping for the future. God may have his own reasons for allowing this virus to augment and intensify, but it’s faith which keeps us sane as we hope for a future better than the present we are dealing with.
It’s scary to think of the future. Without a doubt, life will not be the same after this pandemic, but that’s okay. Our “normal” wasn’t working. That’s why it truly warms the heart to see several videos on social media which show strangers showing random acts of kindness towards the elderly, frontline workers, and other fellow citizens to ensure that we all get through this trying and turbulent time in the world. Hopefully after this is all over, that becomes the new normal. A world where we finally value what we have and act on a desire to be innately good as opposed to self-centered action.
A Day in my Life: Drew 16, Xavier College San Juan, Philippines
The current situation has affected my daily life to a significant degree. During the summer I would usually be able to visit my relatives and play games with my cousins. My family would usually go to our maternal-side’s house every Friday to be able to catch-up with them. Now we video call through messenger instead. This is so that our grandparents will be safe.
Aside from being stuck at home, I have to give more priority to my health and wellbeing. I’ve begun the habit of washing my hands more often, washing every other hour instead of washing my hands before eating.
Being stuck at home means that we all have a new type of life to live. All structure that we had beforehand are now nonexistent. This has been a blessing to me since now I can focus my time on exercising and other bucket lists that I have kept buried for a long time.
The epidemic has revealed a lot of the weaknesses of our society, as well as its strengths. We realize that our health system was not as effective as it seemed. In my own personal life, I begin to realize that much of my happiness has come from my social interactions with other people. Much of the things that I have looked forward to in the summer, like programmes, camps etc have been cancelled.
On the bright side I have given more priority to my studies and reviewing for the college entrance exams. I am lucky that time was given to me to reflect on my life and where I want to go.
I really hope that everyone else is safe and will find the best way to spend the time that this situation has given us.
A Day in my Life: Marcus 14, Xavier College San Juan, Philippines
Ever since the outbreak of COVID-19, me and my family have not been able to freely go outside. One thing that I have changed in my daily lifestyle is that I have to reduce the amount of food I consume. One other change is that we are very focused on keeping our house and ourselves sanitized by regularly washing hands, disinfecting furniture, etc.
I would say that the biggest challenge in living within the outbreak of COVID-19 would be facing the fact that many of our fellow human beings, most especially our frontliners, are suffering amidst the pandemic. One other challenge would be the Enhanced Community Quarantine, where people are not allowed outside of their homes. However, the consolation of the situation is the lessons we would get from it. For example, it teaches us that we should always be prepared for a situation like this in the future. These have made me feel that the world is not perfect, but there are those people who can make it better and this is what society should learn.
My biggest concern regarding the pandemic is the consequences it causes, the death and suffering of many people, the economy, amongst others. My biggest hope is that the pandemic ends as soon as possible.
A Day in my Life: Mat 16, Xavier College San Juan, Philippines
We live in a time of unprecedented fear—merely going out of the house could start a descent into ill health, the social and economic systems we have set up are threatening to collapse, and political systems have shown their full deficiencies. In other words, the idea of community has sacrificed itself in service of individuality.
The full scale of that even rips apart the dynamic of families. Parents have more often than not lost their pay because of the global situation, but worse than this, children have become, in their eyes, even more “useless.” In this extraordinary time, ideas of filial duty and obligation break down and should no longer be fully accepted.
What people need to re-realize is that all our relationships have been built on love, the unconditional love of the most memorable Sacrifice, the perfect love of the Father. However, the love of the Father is meaningless without fear—fear that people will never return to him, fear that fear itself vanishes from us and makes us unafraid for others. Without fearing for the welfare of others, we cannot channel the ultimate Sacrifice on the cross.
In this trying time, where communities have torn each other apart, fear for the loss of the communal good has vanished. Love for the fellow human has vanished. Contrary to expectations, the current situation has resulted into the deepest loss of the most fundamental unit of the community. The family has devolved into a sort of hateful contract of apparently one-way obligation. Fear for each other’s holistic welfare has been lost.
Now is the time to change that.
A Day in my Life: Richwynn 16, Xavier College San Juan, Philippines
Disrupted routine. Restrained movement. Impersonal/Virtual communication. These summarize my situation following the pandemic declaration and ECQ imposition. As the world grapples with a powerfully-mutating disease, I have been riding on a roller coaster of emotions and realizations.
My moments of desolation sporadically intersperse with a conscious, driven effort to dwell in a state of consolation. Uncertainties and fear abound as I worry over drastic lifestyle adjustments and the duration of such while grieving over daily news of fallen frontliners and patients who were mostly deprived of their last farewell and/or receiving their last rites. Meanwhile, this trying time proves human fallibility; and sheds truth that mankind’s scramble for recognition, power, wealth are seemingly worthless when what matters most now is safeguarding God’s gift of life – for self-survival or sharing this through saving others.
In light of Pope Francis’ message for the world to reconnect, I tend to tie this to the themes of Catholic social teachings by showing solidarity from simple acts of acknowledging our frontline warriors to inclusive participation of multi-ethnicities in medical research/clinical trials. This pandemic effectively breaks man-made barriers stratified through GDP standing, gender, race and social stature; thus highlights that the very essence of human life/dignity is our responsibility to self in relation to our environment (care for God’s creation) and others (care for the needy and the vulnerable).
