[Editor’s Note] This article of Kelly Lin was published on Young Post (South China Morning Post) on 4/4/2022.

  After two years of suffering from the Covid-19 pandemic, my attitude towards school life has changed a lot.

  In the past, I was a lazy student, and school life felt so tedious – it was just about sitting on a chair and writing on sheets of paper until the end of the day. Before the pandemic,  I wished the bell would ring as soon as possible so I could escape from the torture of the classroom. 

  When my classmates walked by, I did not greet them. At the time, I thought it was silly to greet them because I would see them every day. It was quite embarrassing when students looked at each other with fake smiles.

  Besides, the lunch at school was inedible because all the food from the canteen was tasteless.

  But everything changed after the outbreak of Covid-19. Schools in Hong Kong were suspended, and we were forced to stay at home. At first, I was over the moon because I did not have to study and I could do anything I wanted. I slept until noon and ate junk food for lunch. I threw away all of my textbooks and played computer games for a whole day with my classmates. I thought that was the best way to enjoy my life.

 After a while, I was not as delighted as I was before. When I read the newspapers, I noticed that many people around the world were dying because of the pandemic, including other students who lost the opportunity to study forever.

  I started to worry that I would be next, and fear tormented me. I tried to escape reality by playing video games, drawing pictures and eating food.

  Although these had been my favourite activities, I no longer find them interesting. No matter how delicious the food was, it could not whet my appetite. I deleted all of my games and started thinking, ‘Do I really like this kind of life?’

  After staying at home and looking at the walls of my room for another month, I felt desperate and depressed. I could not understand why nothing interested me anymore.

  I tried to relieve my stress by chatting with friends through social media, but my friends were just as anxious as I was. Everyone felt hopeless because the pandemic seemed endless. When I asked what they would want to do after the pandemic, every answer was the same: to enjoy going back to school.

  Last year, after the city’s Education Bureau announced schools could reopen, I remember waking up early in the morning and rushing to school on the first day. When I first stepped into the classroom, it didn’t feel real. 

  During my first English lesson, I did not fall asleep like I usually did. I felt energetic rather than sleepy. At the canteen, the quality of food did not change, but I had missed the tasteless food so much. When I chatted with my classmates, I cherished every second. Every moment felt like the last time for us to connect. Although we were all wearing masks, we could still see the smiles on each others’ faces.

  That was the first time I felt a huge change in my attitude as a student. This year, I look forward to returning to school again.