Articles

What Should Remain Unchanged

by Amelia Soni

Changes is constant. It is definitely inevitable. But what should we do then? Do we still need to be hard-headed and be reluctant towards it? My answer will be no. The change will be working on our side if we will embrace it. Since this pandemic took the world by roaring storm, almost every aspect of our lives was drastically transformed.

Before we used to head to every destination that we wish to go to, we can head there without any reservations, precautions, and protocols to follow. Now, we are obliged to wear face masks and shields so that we can lower the chance of us catching these nasty COVID-19 viruses. Though when we start to look at its brighter side because we wear face masks and shields, we, especially us women, will not spend a lot of time anymore perfecting our makeup looks. In return, we tend to accomplish what is on our plates more efficiently. As a teacher, when this pandemic is still out of the picture, I used to go to our school every morning optimistically. I am always excited to teach my students and build our bonds together stronger every day.

So now that the paradigm has shifted, I was saddened by the fact that the long-distance and gadgets screens will separate me from them. Surely it will make communicating with them harder on my part and I believe on their part too. However, when we devote time to see the positive sides of it, we will also feel very grateful then. We will spend almost half of our lives anymore on the roads because of the extremely heavy traffic flow which is heavier than our workloads because we are already working from home. Consequently, we will now have more freedom to wear much more comfortable clothes because we are just chilling in our houses and it will make us more productive. Then we can finally spend more time with our family and loved ones while we are staying in our places.

This pandemic gave us that chance to rediscover our family. Due to the fact that there are restrictions upon going out because we want to contain the spread of the virus, normally we are stuck in our homes 24/7. But also, for this reason, we can bond with our loved ones more often. We can enjoy more moments with them. The best part is that we are creating happy memories that will never be taken away by any sort of epidemic and pandemic. Before the pandemic, we are not so knowledgeable on different technological stuff. I know that there are still people like me who are not tech-savvy as they put it in words. We probably still want to do the usual tasks that we used to do traditionally. So we are overwhelmed when the pandemic boomed and suddenly, online transactions abruptly became a staple thing.

From banking, to communicating, and even up to buying foods. Everything became virtual. But because we need to get into these, we unconsciously acquired more knowledge and wisdom that will now make us more abled. Unlike before, we now treat technology as a friend and not an enemy. I mentioned that almost all of the aspects of our lives were altered. But there are still things that we need to retain. This may sound cliché but it will definitely be impactful. First, we should never be tired of being grateful. Despite of all the unfortunate events in the world, the fact that we are still alive and you are still able to read this article is an enormous blessing in itself. So we should always be positively grateful because we are still wonderfully blessed in the midst of this uncertainty. And of course, our eagerness to learn should remain unperturbed. As we continue to face challenges, the take-home wisdom from these should always be pocketed by us. Because as we never stop to learn, we are also not stopping to grow. Definitely, the new normal is challenging. But when we focus on its silver lining, then we can have a much more amazing lifetime.

About the Author:

Amelia D. Soni is a school head at mountain heights high school in Sdo Caloocan, NCR Philippines.

4 Comments

  1. Ma. Nimfa U. David

    Change is inevitable in this pandemic time, Covid-19 altered our regular activities as well as our mode of living. We became totally indulged in the virtual world that makes gadget and wifi as life. All of us became conscious with our own health, the food that we eat, proper hygiene by following the health protocols and how we can preserved our life not to be affected by the virus. We become more prayerful and resilient despite of the challenges and adverse effect of this pandemic situation in our life. What makes it more advantageous to me is that we became closer not only to God but to our Family whom we negate sometimes because of our work in order to meet the daily needs of the family. We developed a very strong Family bonding that we only think of their health welfare and come to think that we all both honed and capacitate each other inert talent and skills in order to survived our day to day needs. We teach each family members to become little entrepreneurs using online business to help both ends meet. Our circle of friends were no longer contained in a happy go lucky face to face chitchat restobars or in an exclusive getaway resorts or hangouts either local or outside the country but it became locked in a small nook where we can only see them in our gadgets or laptops. We gained more virtual friends and tiktok and facebook is Life for all of us. Attending classes is no longer fun because we misses much of our students smiles , giggles and naughtiness. So many things to miss in the old normal but just what You said Mam Amelia Diaz Soni that only the word change never change in the new normal. Congrats and Kudos to your Good leadership in the school where my heart ❤️ belongs.

    • Thank for your wonderful message and inspiring message Mam Nimfa U. David. You served as an inspiration to all of us, a sister to lean on and a good role model . Always keep safe and Gid bless

    • Thank you very much po Mam Ma. Nimfa U. David, your comment is very inspiring and encouraging , your one of my inspiration and the One I always look up. Always take care and God bless po

  2. Marife O. Talabucon

    Nothing is permanent in this world but change and those who will be able to adapt to change will most likely to live or exist. It is called the survival of the fittest. Humans need God. Without God, we cannot adapt to change and therefore we will cease to exist.