I was the first one to wake up that morning. I lay for a moment, watching dust swirl in the ray of sunlight penetrating through the gap between my cotton curtains. As I was almost on the verge of savouring the thought that it was a Friday, I felt as if reality hit my head hard.

Friday? Really? What difference does it even make? It’s been Friday everyday since we’ve been caged, or in other words, ‘quarantined’.

I guess my spirits fell before it even began to rise. In addition, to make thoughts even more critical, my brain tricked me into casting my mind through the thoughts of my best friend’s wedding mischief to me tossing my graduation hat high up the air to the distant shrieks and giggles resulting from adrenaline rushes during a nagor-dola ride at Boishakhi melas. Well, all of which is, of course - CANCELLED.

I know for a fact; alike me, many have suffered through the same melancholic emotions of distress and misery as our long awaited plans have come to a halt. As strongly as we feel for the welfare of our dear ones, we certainly do also, wholeheartedly wish that life hadn’t given us such bitter lemons with no clear recipe of making lemonade.

Ronald A. Heifetz, in his book- ‘The Practice of Adaptive Leadership’ quotes,
“What people resist is not change per se, but loss.” I believe we can, to a great extent, relate to his words given the present scenario. We are transitioning. We are transforming. Perhaps as a person, as family, as employees, as a friend or as a foe; however, the bothersome bit isn’t the change but the loss we’re incurring as a result of the change. Our hopes and dreams have left us bamboozled, our hearts feel feeble and at some point, we might even come to question our sanity. The vivid sense of loss is actually unprecedented and unacceptable. But what’s next? What can be a valid escape out of this turmoil? Is there a way to process such an uncommon change and eventually emerge from it?

I believe there is.

Focusing on my reflection, I’ve come across merely three moves on keeping my heart and brain elated and exuberant while tackling such a low-key world war.

Make best use of your available resources

My best take from studying Economics has always been this one. In times of scarcity where unlimited wants over power limited resources, it might be a great idea for you to put at hand resources to use to minimize the sense of loss. For example, you need a haircut? You can reach out to your parents to trim your edges. Have you been longing to see your friends? Have a scheduled zoom meeting every week. Do you miss going to the gym? Help your family into doing chores such as sweeping, washing dishes and clothes to make it up for the shortage of exercises along with free hand ones . I never knew washing dishes could turn out to be such an effective hand exercise until yesterday!

Prepare exceptionally for the new world

To refrain from feeling useless, you might even want to distract yourselves from participating in instagram trends and sharing quarantine memes to enhance your skills and capabilities at your valuable vacant hours. BYLCx, Coursera and Udemy along with numerous other websites offer a variety of courses which ought to help you fully brace yourselves for the new reality of education and job sectors. Since our pockets might already be somewhat loaded with funds saved from eating outside, why not devote ourselves to spending it on something productive?

Don’t let your expectations deflate

You might consider revising your thought processes a little.
Believe the world is on pause. This is not permanent. Your messy, doleful schedule will end. You will be able to go out, you’ll see your friends and cousins again. All your awaited plans will rekindle. The day you step out, you’ll realize the worth of your favourite people better. You will laugh like there’s no tomorrow, you will take pictures, you will fight over the last slice of pizza, you will soon complain about deadlock traffic and cramped Dhaka like a daily chore. The misplaced puzzle pieces will find its way back to it’s right place. Overall, the sun will shine brighter and the burden in your heart will feel lighter.

With that note, I’d try to generate the summation of my thoughts into a bubble and end with a quote of my preference which we can follow and bring into effect, “Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, only if one remembers to turn on the light.”- Albus Dumbledore