At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, many of us were left with more time on our hands than usual, and plenty of opportunities to reflect on our lives. Fourth Former Alice put that time to good use, producing a series of weekly blog posts. Read her story below:
When the coronavirus pandemic first started to affect our lives, we were forced to slow down and cut things out of our busy schedules. This left me with plenty of time to stop and think. I came to the realisation of just how strange these times that we are currently living through are. The pandemic has had, and will continue to have, many effects on our society - economically, environmentally, socially and mentally. It will be remembered as one of the significant moments in history. Perhaps future pupils at Brighton College will study it in their GCSE textbooks as we do the plague or the Russian Revolution.
These thoughts led me to write blogs about my daily life with all the new challenges we were facing. I wrote a weekly blog for 15 weeks. Each week, the blogs were shared around the staff, pupils and parents of my previous school by the headmaster, and they received many glowing reviews. The blogs assessed the current situation and gave my readers some tips and ideas that I found very useful in lockdown. For example, my week four blog was named after the Buddhist proverb Enough is a feast and was about the things we can all be grateful for and the benefits of gratitude. Another blog was titled If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else which was about helping our community and staying in touch with friends.
These blogs were then published in a book called My Positive Guide to Lockdown which I hope will be read by future generations who want to learn more about the pandemic. Lockdown restrictions are easing, and we will be there soon. As blog 11 said: ‘Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet’.
- Alice, Fourth Form
