Lockdown Diaries Nominee#21- My Lockdown Blog By Jaya Prakash Muduli

COVID-19 has changed how the world was used to be. People have experienced a lot. They have gone into depression and also successfully recovered. I am here to tell you what I have been through during this lockdown.

The Hit:
The lockdown came unexpectedly when I had come home after a long time to celebrate Holi, a major festival of India. There was no concern for COVID-19 in India then. I had come home for just 4 days without any study material. But just when I was about to go back, the university officials postponed everything and eventually closed down the entire campus. Now I, a final year student of MBA, was stuck at home without anything who was about to face his end term examination in about 2 months. I was taking online classes daily and also some MOOCs and started to learn from YouTube. Also there were daily quizzes with my classmates. I also attended many webinars, webcasts during this period. Also Netflix and chill. The 1st week of lockdown went well. Also I developed a new hobby of cookin

The Initial Uncertainties:
In the beginning of April the lockdown extended till May and subsequently till June. Then I realized the differences in learning from hardcopy and softcopy especially when there are several 500+ page pdf books. It’s never the same. My performance was going down. But I wasn’t that much worried as I believed I can cope up. I started minimizing my sleep time to cover all these tasks daily. But then came the real struggling period.

The Breakdown:
The daily quizzes were not compulsory but were necessary. And when you see your results continuously go down and you are helpless, you feel frustrated. With so much uncertainties, I couldn’t concentrate on studies. Even the Govt. couldn’t decide whether to cancel the end term exam or not. It was depressing. In the 3rd week of May, a night came up when I couldn’t even sleep thinking about studies. I thought of leaving everything to focus only on studies. I wasn’t taking out my bike which was my major stress buster. I had never considered myself as an indoor person who can stay inside his home for long. I love travelling. But since it wasn’t safe to go out, I felt devastated. The whole week went the same. I didn’t do anything. Even though everybody was around, I couldn’t make them understand what I was going through. The period was extraordinary.

The Recovery:
In June the restrictions were a bit loosen. Meanwhile I had come across some great motivational quotes and realized that I was overthinking all this while. The lockdown has affected everybody, not just me. Also I did went on a very long drive to lose and rediscover myself. And when I returned everything was great again. It felt like I needed that trip. I gathered myself up and made a time table with equal priority to studies as well as the extras and also to entertainment. I installed Netflix once again to watch at least a single episode of any series a day. I started writing what I had already got from various webcasts or webinars in the form of articles. I realized that I can cope up with studies one day but it’s not that big deal to sacrifice my mental wellbeing. I slept peacefully without caring about anything. I felt good managing everything going on. Its August now, lockdown is still there but I haven’t felt what I felt that night ever again.

ReachIvy.com organized an online blog/vlog competition to provide people the unique opportunity to share their lockdown stories using their creativity. The competition met with a fantastic response from participants across 4 continents, and our jury has handpicked the Top 50 entries from them for the Popular Choice Award 2020!

The above entry has been submitted by Jaya Prakash Muduli from India. She is a 23-year-old student of Banaras Hindu University. Kudos to Maria for this beautiful piece!

Show your support and help Jaya win the contest by liking this blog post on all ReachIvy.com’s social media platforms!