20th March 2020, the entire nation was in shock, for the Prime Minister declared a nationwide

lockdown. It was a strange situation which we had never experienced before. It was a mixed feeling
of shock, stress and anxiety. It was the toughest time many suffered; some survived some lost their
loved ones. When my family got Covid positive that were the toughest 14 days of my life we all
panicked with my father at higher risk but still we managed to come out of the situation and
survived, that time I realized… I realized the importance of our loved ones, our family particularly our
parents the people we always take for granted, the people we know are always there for us
whenever we need them and because we know this we don’t value them. We all celebrate Father’s
day or Mother’s day once every year but it’s not just that day we must respect them and
acknowledge them for they have worked day and night to make us the best version of ourselves, to
provide us withal the basic amenities to make us independent and self- reliant. We must recognize
their efforts each day. This pandemic taught me to be grateful and content in the things that I have
and that everything happens for a reason. This pandemic not just made me realize the value of my
family but also how we can live our life to the fullest and solving the question of knowing oneself.
with we not being able to go out we still managed to revive our life through online classes and work
from home. What is the importance of education? I used to think to myself when I was 9 or 10 years
old and even till couple past years. But then during this pandemic as I reached my senior years I was
able to understand that it’s not about facts but how can you apply things in your everyday life. It’s
not just about the things that we read in books but how we interpret it and use it in our own life. I
understood that learning is not limited to schools or books we learn every day from our experiences
for example recently when I read a poem keeping quiet by Pablo Neruda in which the poet urges the
readers for introspection. I realized many things firstly, With the break out of this pandemic we all
were stuck in our homes for almost an year and we got a lot of time to ourselves but how many of us
utilized this opportunity as the time to introspect. I realized that how empty we are from inside as
everything we do is what others want us to do and not what we really want to do. We are
unknowingly giving others the power to make decisions for us. every time someone questions the
already existing system and demand change the answer is what will the SOCIETY say or think? What
is this society? Society is us, we make the society, society doesn’t make us. we are all so busy to fit in
those “categories” made by the “society” that we have lost our own self behind. What can we really
do about this? I thought to myself and found that firstly we must know who we actually are which
can be done through introspection. Taking out some time from our busy schedules and thinking,
understanding and analysis things from a holistic view because in this way we can understand not
just ourselves but others. This thought struck my mind and I wasn’t able to take off my mind but to
think because I realized that I was also one of those people. I then decided from that point onwards
that I have to spend some quality time with myself, to understand myself and this is how my journey
began to get the answer of who am