Ashes for Ash — A look inside a grade 10 student’s life during the pandemic

“Yes. It feels like the time is so slow and I couldn't do anything about it.” — Leannah Ashley A. Viray

Photo by Alona Abigael Adriano | Model: Leannah Ashley A. Viray

There’s no denying that the COVID-19 pandemic has put a halt in everyone’s lives. For this month's Feature Fever, the spotlight is on Leannah Ashley A. Viray, a student-leader who's now in her last year in Junior High School, and how things turned into ashes for her once Rona made her way to the world.

It was March 2020 when Ashley finally got the fishbone out of her throat after successfully surviving their research defense. Together with her friends, Ashley went to the mall to celebrate the accomplished requirement that signifies a closer step towards the end of the school year. Unfortunately, Ashley nor her friends didn't see what was coming. They didn't know that would be the last time they would hang out in a year or so. That is probably the case for most people, including myself, who were also expecting classes to be suspended for only a few days but those days turned into weeks, months, and now, into almost two years. When the COVID-19 pandemic started, Ashley shared that she started to feel more anxious, stressed, and just always worried about everything.

"Yes. It feels like the time is so slow and I couldn't do anything about it." This is what Ashley has responded when asked about her feelings regarding how the pandemic has abruptly put things in various aspects into a halt. Being in constant isolation during the lockdown due to the government protocols made Ashley feel like all the opportunities to have fun have been gone and lost. It's not unknown that the pandemic has also affected the field of education. The new shift in the learning environment set-up definitely affected students’ academic performance.

For Ashley, the new learning set-up did not help her in gaining new knowledge. “I ended up doing my tasks halfheartedly,” Ashley answered when asked about how the pandemic affected her academic performance. Even though it has been almost two years since Rona made way for a lot of changes in everyone's lives, Ashley still finds these changes hard to adapt and adjust. In general, the pandemic has impacted her negatively as it made her feel more vulnerable. Though it’s irrefutable that most of what the COVID-19 pandemic has given are negative, we can still say that there are some silver linings from here and there.

One of these is how as social beings, we have realized and felt more the significance of human connections. Most of us have probably had epiphanies about how much time has flown seeing how much the people around us have grown. For some, having their treasured people around them is a way of coping up in these difficult times. That is also the case for Ashley whose loved ones have helped her in coping by staying connected. Trying hobbies has also helped as a way to cope up as well as trying to avoid thinking too much about what stresses her. Actually, cultivating hobbies can also serve as a “distraction” to help you free your mind from unnecessary thoughts.

Things have become ashes for Ash. A lot has crumbled into pieces and the irony of time making people feel like it has stopped while also moving ahead on its own at the same time. There are certain moments in time that might still linger in her mind while all of this chaos currently happening in the world still goes on. Life does go on but moving forward can be pretty hard. But just like how ashes can also mean rebirth after an end, this is a reminder that things—and us, human beings—will someday, in one way or another, find its way back to how they all began. The pandemic might have turned ashes for Ash and for everyone too but it certainly is not the end; we all hope so it is not. Just like how galaxies die and then give birth again to the cosmo creations, let us hope for better tomorrows. Let us put hope in better days and in better skies.

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Previously submitted to Feature Writing class