Good morning everyone,
Today we have a lovely guest blog written by Vishwa Sherlekar, a current student discussing the difficulties of The Coronavirus Outbreak. Please take a read and stay safe!
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When This is All Over
When I thought of coming to the UK, getting struck by COVID 19 was so not on my agenda. But now thinking about it at least I can be amongst those cool folks that will have a story of being stuck in a foreign country fending for myself in this pandemic.
COVID 19 literally has just royally made all my dreams of travel impossible but I have virtually managed to visit them thanks to Google maps and AirBnb. The perks of being an introvert is I don’t mind the lockdown that much but I now seem to value every single second I spend outdoors.
When this lockdown started, I remember going to those empty isles in the market where there is no toilet roll, sanitizer, pasta, beans and milk. I’d love to go to the market when this all ends and shop all of these items with no maximum limit just to feel the freedom.
This pandemic made me change my relationship status to being in an “isolationship”. Confined to my studio apartment, I can guarantee you that there is not a single corner in my room that hasn’t been explored. I’ve pretty much studied or just basically bunked in every corner of the studio dreaming and mentally promising myself of the things that I am doing post this ends. I can honestly hear my bed and the entire apartment telling me to leave it alone and give it some space of its own! Now I know why my pet dog runs immediately I open the front door of my apartment. Frankly, I don’t blame him for doing that because honestly one of the things that I am doing post this lockdown is walk or run aimlessly on the road as far as I have GPS to make sure I reach back home….
I’m also in dire need of haircut and grooming because at this point even Google photos fails to recognise me so yes definitely my next stop is the salon and spa. Being an avid cook, you can imagine the tons of things that I am cooking and eating all by myself, so it only makes sense for me to enroll into some kind of fitness activity programmes where I shed the quarantine weight I’ve gained. I cannot wait to start my job once this gets over with. I am pretty confident, never well not never but at least for the next few months I am not going to crib about having to work. When I asked God for weekend and holidays, I didn’t expect him to give me this! I think I’ve had enough of these days that I can now actually work without eagerly waiting for them. At this point rather than dreaming about Saturday, I have started craving for a Monday.
Also, another thing that I ardently look forwards to is having my boyfriend come visit me in the UK. Since India banned travel, our plans were basically down the drain and I am counting days and hoping he can come visit (p.s. long-distance cross continent relationship).
This lockdown actually taught me that I can live my life on a low budget and I intend to actually follow it post its end. I can only dream of shopping at the clothing store, eating and exploiting the buy one get one on my tastecard membership. I am so frightened to go to the hospital or the GP at this point, but I am doing it first thing once this all ends. Fearlessly stepping into the Health Practice without having the scare of my life. I crave to see people on the road, to have some human interaction. The introvert in me is also slowly changing its colours. I have hugged every non-living object in my room, because I fear my mind is going to forget what hugging is like anymore with the social distancing. Once this all ends, I’m going to give a warm hug to every person who has worked tirelessly in this pandemic. It’s only in this lockdown that I was jobless enough to actually google places to roam or walk around Exeter and boy do I regret doing it! I have missed so much. Green circle walk is an item in my to do list that I want to strike off once this all ends.
I procrastinated going to those shops where I could donate my duvet and clothing which I now think was a bad decision. So, I’m going to rectify it by going there and donating what I had originally intended to do.
Beaches, the sun sand and sea are calling out to me. I had originally planned to flaunt my summer body and enjoy them but now I don’t care if I have my quarantine weight, I’m still going to the beaches and enjoying it all. All my clothes and footwear are actually accumulating a nice layer of dust and I’ve promised to garner some sunlight on every single one of them as soon as I can.
I’ve forgotten how the St David’s railway station or the Stagecoach buses look like. I’d need to get myself reacquainted with them to go visit my aunt in Slough. Does anyone of you remember what hard cash looks like? I have actually forgotten because of the contactless payments that I’m doing in this lockdown. So, it only seems fit I go to the ATM and withdraw some to use it.
This pandemic has given me so much of the much wanted “me time” that I can no longer wait to have those parties with my friends. I think I’ll cry those precious tears of joy once this comes to an end because of the sheer idea that I’m no longer a prisoner of COVID-19.
One of the things that I most definitely have to do once this lockdown ends is to apply for a job as a physiotherapist that gives me the stay back to be in the UK. If I manage to land this dream job, I would be able to tick every single of those travel dreams and add those stamps to my passport.
I want to be back in that world where watching television or browsing the internet was a choice and not the only way to pass time. I can tell you one thing for sure considering my time in the UK, I am pretty positive the day it ends it’s going to be a rainy day and I’m going to be waiting for it to get sunny so that I can go outside. Since this lockdown has started the nature is low-key taunting.
I think I’ve ranted enough about the things that I want to do once this all ends and now am all charged up and hoping it all ends tomorrow but then again tomorrow never comes does it?
Vishwa Sherlekar