Written by Arohi Sachar
31st December 2020
Hi! This is my last article for The Green Pages as the Psychology Column Writer and even as the School Captain of Greenwood High so I decided to take you all through my journey in the raw non-traditional format of a children’s storybook, simply because of how easy they are. The illustrations are done by our very own comic artist, Anurag Nambiar. Enjoy :)
Once upon a time in a land far far away lived a small little dino named Ru. She was a happy-go lucky always smiling creature and used to thrive having other animals around her. Ru was determined to change the world- small dino with big dreams, they used to call her. But she knew she could do it, things were looking good.
Very soon, Ru was elected as the animal captain. She had a wonderful
team of people to work with and had the support of all her fellow animals. She was the first dino captain, ever. A little extra pressure and a little additional responsibility but she was ready. Her friends and teachers had her back. Within a month, Ru and her team got comfortable in their role and new ideas kept coming. The previous animal captain had told her something on the day of the badging ceremony, something that has stayed with her till this very day-
“do something that has never been done before, that’s how you’ll be remembered.”
2020 BC was going to be her year, she could feel it.
Jumping to the third month of 2020, her team and her were planning to have a summer carnival for the annual day when all of a sudden a new word came up, something no one had ever heard before. Coronavirus they called it. A disease? An illness? A strange curse? No one knew. “Don’t worry guys it’s probably gonna go away in a few days, I mean, how bad could it be?’ (Oh if only Ru knew how bad it could actually be.) They went back home on the 13th of March, ready for the next day but that tomorrow never came. 10 months later, it’s still not here.
The first few days were great. It was a break everyone really deserved. Ru quickly took out her planner and outlined things she would do in the next two months. From school projects to catching up on shows, this virus wasn’t so bad after all. Summer passed by really quickly but things weren’t getting better. Days became weeks and weeks became months but, everyday felt the same.
Right before school ended, Ru, along with two of her dino friends were planning to start a magazine. They decided to turn that into an online magazine looking at the uncertainty of things getting back to normal. It started as something to keep them busy for a few more weeks at home, as it was supposed to be. But on 25th May, a lockdown was announced. It finally hit. Things were going to stay like this for a while.
That feeling of helplessness just grew and grew. It was supposed to be a good year, now she was just losing months. The team would do calls, wondering how to make the most of this situation and in one of those calls, MYSA was born. Keeping everyone engaged while building school spirit was the main objective but even here reaching people was the problem. Nevertheless the group of 13 leaders worked tirelessly to make their vision a reality and after a few weeks, we were good to go.
The satisfaction was still low for Ru. Of course there was so much more to do but, how? When? Where? Nobody had ever experienced this situation before. There was no one she could turn to for help or advice. The thing that kept her going-her people were also so far far away. Everything was through a screen and, how could one possibly adapt to that? People would ask her questions she would not know answers to, there was no real work, and all her plans for the year were slowly slipping away like sand from her fingers. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Some days, all she did was sit in bed and cry, wondering if she was doing enough, wondering if things would ever get back to normal.
But they didn’t last very long. “You’re the first animal captain in a time like this, that’s already something no one has ever done before.” Her people were still around her and things were..still the same.
In August, the Green Pages team held Millenium, which although off to a rocky start went off very well. A whole month of effort and planning was visible on the 30th. That was the first online program we had held in the pandemic but who knew then that they were just getting started.
The next two months had GWHMUN and IGNITE which were done after intensive planning along with her IB counterparts. Things were hard of course but it was safe to say they were all slowly getting used to it. The satisfaction of doing something which was initially low, slowly increased one event at a time.
The one thing Ru learnt this pandemic was compassion. She learnt to be compassionate towards herself, towards the people around her, towards the people she didn’t know but were working tirelessly for the safety and well being of her loved ones and towards humanity as a whole. This year was hard. Hard for everyone in different ways but that’s all the more reason to go easy on yourself. Spread a lot of love and kindness, the world needs a lot more of that and for Ru the dino, she won the race. She wasn’t competing against anyone but herself, striving to become a better version as months passed.
In November 2019 she told you that cooperation and collaboration was more important than golds and silvers and how there is no real achievement if it does not benefit everyone collectively. We did that.
Holding your hand while walking to the finish line, together, was the best part of this year. Thank you for winning the race with me :)
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