Politicians and elites are tested and vaccinated while the masses continue to endure through poverty and neglect. In addition to fearing for our safety, we lost opportunities, experiences, and aspirations. No, we were robbed of them.
Growing up, I have always dreamed of going to college and experiencing things I only hear about in the stories of my friends and family. I spent more time imagining my college life in UP instead of actually enjoying high school. And when I finally got into UP, in August of 2019, it lived up to all of my expectations. I experienced independence, growth, and freedom which I had never felt before. It was such a liberating feeling to live alone, to go to my classes, and to spend time making new friends. This may not be the exact case for everyone. However, there is no denying that in one way or another, college is a place that helps you discover yourself. Being able to make your own decisions and create unique memories is one of the essential things that college offers. That being said, it was one of the best experiences of my life; until it wasn’t.
Everything came to a halt mid-March. My friends and I, along with many others, thought that the Covid-19 outbreak would give us a two-week break. We even expected to finish the semester on campus, just a bit later than expected. The initial weeks spent at home were a mixture of breaking news, internet trends, and catching up with loved ones. The distress and grief started to become overpowering as the weeks turned months dragged on. At this point we started to ask questions like “Why weren’t travel bans issued earlier?” and “Why are our responses not health-centered but militaristic?”. The government’s pandemic response proved to be reactionary and inefficient. Observing this, people had gathered a sense of uncertainty surrounding the future.
This mindset manifested itself again and again when we faced challenges in quarantine. As online classes began last September, it proved to be not only difficult but damaging to the mental health of students, and teachers alike. Despite all this, many of us still hoped to return to campus — which was to no avail. Then in one of the President’s press briefings last July, he promised we would have vaccines by the end of the year. While I rarely believed any of his promises, deep down I hoped it would be true. Again, to no avail. I find myself stuck in this cycle of hoping and getting disappointed about the coming months. A valid response to this would be to feel like we were robbed of our best years. This is a sentiment I am sure many other college students share. I looked forward to spending these years making memories but ended up stuck in my childhood home reliving the same day over and over again.
Just like that, an incompetent pandemic response shattered the dreams and expectations of so many young aspirants. It could be argued that the pandemic is the root cause of all of this. Yet that same pandemic did not stop other countries, with competent leaders, from providing their citizens with proper plans and solutions. It’s not difficult to see how a response led by generals instead of scientists and health experts was bound to fail. While the country suffers and more lives are lost, the orchestrator of this failed response sleeps peacefully. President Duterte remains steadfast in his non-scientific, undemocratic, and militaristic response. This has helped no one except himself, his political entourage, and their interests.
Even more difficult to accept is that those in charge do not reap the consequences of their incompetencies. Politicians and elites are tested and vaccinated while the masses continue to endure through poverty and neglect. In addition to fearing for our safety, we lost opportunities, experiences, and aspirations. No, we were robbed of them.
The more months I’ve spent thinking about all the experiences I missed, the more desolate and hopeless I became. Perhaps, as a way to console myself, I started asking “Why do the best years of my life have to be in college?”. After all, there is still so much life to experience after these four years. This isn’t meant to take away from the unacceptable treatment the people of this country have been receiving. It is just a mental note I have, to keep myself sane. A reminder that there are still better years ahead.
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