Quarantine hasn’t been the most exciting thing and COVID-19 has caused tragedies all over the globe from the loss of our loved ones to financial instability. Luckily, from my own personal perspective, COVID-19 had both positive and negative impacts on my life. So before we get into my story let me introduce myself, my name is Tajwar A., and was an IGCSE candidate for May 2020. I live in a south Asian country named Bangladesh.

So let me dive into my experience of the pandemic. So before all the lockdowns and outbreak my family and I were living the fast and busy life of Dhaka. As my exams were coming up I spent most of my time in studies and coaching classes. My mother and father were both busy with their jobs and my sibling I often had to manage ourselves. Life was busy and sometimes hard. Our family rarely got to spend some quality time together as everyone was busy and focused on their own thing but the pandemic changed it all.

Back in March 2020 when COVID-19 cases were spreading like wildfire and lockdowns were imposed on Bangladesh all my life went downhill. I had planned and worked hard for my coming exams yet they got cancelled. I couldn’t meet my friends or even take a break by going on a vacation after my exams. I was then stuck at home with nothing but my family and the internet to connect with the outside world. For the first week of lockdown, I was really distressed by the whole situation. I was always hygienic and took care of myself but I was struck with the fear of COVID-19 which made me a little bit paranoid at the beginning. But because I was in lockdown I had so much free time that I didn’t know what to do with it. I was spending more time with my family and siblings and as our bonds grew stronger, I realized what I had been missing out on in life.

This whole pandemic made me realize that there is so much more to life that I had been missing out on, so I spent more time with my family. We tried out new hobbies and developed skills which made me a better version of myself. Looking back now, even if quarantine has not been the most fun and exciting thing for me, and it caused financial instability for my family, my studies were hampered but going through this whole experience was like bitter medicine; it didn’t taste great but it did bring positive changes to my life.