My highschool batch mates and I have a long existing groupchat but we got only reconnected, like actively chatting with one another, because of this pandemic. So if there is one good thing that this whole situation brought about is that we were able to get connected with one another and rekindled the old friendship.
Most of my batchmates sought greener pastures abroad and most of them were frontliners -- yes, nurses and doctors. We were able to compare the response of each government, the PPE's made available to them, the financial assistance given to the citizens and all. I am not to criticize ours to that of theirs but I guess one thing was common -- it was that point where the government required their citizens to stay home.
It was funny how one find it weird to suddenly hear birds chirping while he was out in the middle of New York instead of cars honking. He was pretty awed that there was no traffic on Manhattan. And well, apart from a few vehicles, he only hear ambulance sirens every now and then. Another spoke about finally seeing blue skies around Ortigas, and actually saw the summer sun's rays shining brightly. Another batchmate animatedly spoke about how different the streets were at London at these times. He just can't believe that a city with about ten million people can be controlled and staying home and that the streets were practically empty with only a few cars running.
In the end, we appreciate the momentary halt or pause this pandemic has brought about in our busy lives. But still, like everything else, we do miss the things we used to do. We long to get back to what used to be. But in our discussion, we would definitely miss the simplicity of our life now, that point of doing nothing and by nothing we mean really doing nothing. Like Patrick Star of Bikini Bottom kind of life.