Life interrupted
Teenagers reveal how the pandemic has been challenging for them and admit to having fears about returning to school or college once restrictions are lifted.
THIS year was supposed to be special for Alison Low, but instead, the 16-year-old student has been feeling a sense of loss since the movement control order (MCO) came into effect in March. Alison, who is in Form Five, feels as if she’s missing out on life.
“This is my last year in secondary school and it’s supposed to be a year to create final memories in school with my friends. Instead, I’m spending it at home.
“During the first and second week (of the MCO), I felt really demotivated, like I’d lost all sense of direction,” says Alison, who is also president of the Petaling Jaya Child Council (a programme by the Petaling Jaya City Council to make the city more child friendly).
Over time, the SMK Bandar Utama Damansara 3 student says she managed to overcome her “inner conflict”.
Alison has online classes and tuition sessions via Zoom and Google Meet but admits the lack of engagement and interaction makes studying difficult.
“I often find myself zoning out or being less attentive during an online class,” she says.
But having a proper schedule and managing time well, help, she discovers.
“Schoolwork piling up in our Google Classroom and Whatsapp groups can be pretty overwhelming at times,” says Alison.
“I’m worried that, after having not met anyone besides my family or the food delivery abang since, like, forever, we might have forgotten how to relate. I wonder whether I’ll be able to interact with my peers and teachers face-to-face like before, once the restrictions are fully lifted,” she says.
Even so, Alison notes that there have been some positives that have come out of the MCO/CMCO (conditional movement control order).
“It feels like a ‘break’ from our hectic school life which used to be filled with co-curricular activities,” she admits.
“Now,
I’ve more time to improve my piano-play43%
ing skills and work out at home. I went cycling with my brother the other day. It’s surreal being able to engage with the outside world after so long,” she adds.
Putting life on hold
Unicef data reveals that of adolescents surveyed throughout Malaysia feel safe and calm about the pandemic. But, 52% feel tired, bored and agitated; 33% feel nervous, anxhold.
ious and scared; 22% feel lonely, sad and lost; 13% feel angry, frustrated and irritable; and 7% feel depressed, confused and concerned about online classes.
Like Alison, other teenagers are feeling anxious not only about the Covid-19 pandemic but also about their lives, which have been put on For Cathryn Anila, 20, who completed her STPM (Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia) last year, it’s difficult to have no fixed classes or a job yet.
“I’ve always been on the go and constantly having something to look forward to. So it’s not easy to adapt to not doing anything,” says Cathryn who is a senior child advoat cate Childline Foundation and the founder of Vanguards4change, two NGOS that advocate children’s rights.
The MCO, she says, took a toll on her mental health.
“My internal clock is so messed up that I sleep at around 5am and wake up at noon. I’m not sure how life is going to be post-cmco. The nights really trigger many anxious thoughts,” Cathryn says.
“I don’t have classes or my usual interactions with children during outreach sessions, and I miss my mamak food and boba tea. All this make me feel unproductive and without a sense of purpose,” she laments.
Cathryn has enrolled for German language classes and keeps herself busy with online meetings and webinars on child rights advocacy, and is also a part of Unicef’s @Kitaconnect project.
She adds that it’s not easy to stay home with a large family.
“There are eight of us at home. We’re all trying to cope with our emotions, everyone is going through differchallenges ent right now, and it’s difficult to always be patient and understanding with each other,” she shares.
Despite all that, Cathryn manages
to see the brighter and sometimes lighter side of things.
“After being cooped up at home for so long, I’ve even forgotten how to wear my jeans!” she says, laughing.
Going through times like these has made Elmus Zechery, 17, realise that “we don’t really notice the little things until we lose them”.
“Our social life has taken a big hit during the pandemic. We haven’t been able to say hello to friends that we used to see almost daily, or to even go out and visit them on special occasions like birthdays,” says the SMK St Anthony WP Labuan student who is also the National Child Representative Council president.
“Students have been pushed to adapt to a system that we haven’t been fully integrated into and our teachers have had to adapt to a completely new style of teaching online,” Elmus notes.
“The hardest part about the MCO and CMCO is living a life different from what we’ve grown accustomed to. But now, after getting used to it, it’s going to be just as hard to re-adjust once the restrictions are fully lifted,” he says.
Spending more time online
Student Vigneswaran Krishna Murthy Thevar, 21, really misses university life where he can participate in activities and move around freely.
For the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia student, online classes aren’t always easy to follow because of inconsistent Internet connection and the many distractions that make focusing during eclasses difficult.
“Living with two other siblings who are also in university means we all have to find our own space to study at home without disturbing each other,” he explains.
“Since the MCO started, studies have also changed from being exam-based to assignment-based which is more hectic with more deadlines,” he says, adding that these factors make him feel stressed and depressed.
He is concerned that it will be difficult to return to the outside world when the RMCO kicks off. The RMCO, which stands for recovery movement control order, replaces the CMCO and will begin on June 10 as announced by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on June 7. During the RMCO, schools are set to reopen in stages.
Vigneshwaran usually sleeps around 4am and wakes up at 8am to attend online classes.
“It’ll be hard to wake up and get ready for morning lectures. Even though we now attend morning lectures online, we can just get out of bed and turn on the computer to join the class immediately,” he explains.
Meanwhile, Mohd Hanif Mohd Jame, 17, says that there are many distractions at home so it’s often difficult to focus and sometimes, Internet connectivity is an issue too.
“Online learning and traditional classes are quite different, and it’s not always easy to understand what the teachers are teaching in the online classes,” he says.
Besides his online studies, Hanif has been spending his time enhancing his card-playing skills and producing some card trick videos.
Beware of cyberbullies
With more people being online – for studies, social media, or other activities – teens and children could be more exposed to cyberbullies.
Hanif, who frequently uploads videos to Youtube and Instagram, says that he has encountered this in the form of negative or derogatory comments.
“Cyberbullies are just immature, so I usually ignore them,” he says.
“I’ve also noticed many negative comments on other people’s videos posted during this time, even those with good content,” he adds.
Cathryn believes that the constant negativity – anxiety and anger on social media and forwarding of negative news or memes in chat groups – especially during this time, has also affected the way people react to things.
“It’s more common for people to make negative comments now, not because they genuinely mean it, but because they may be going through difficulties during this period,” she says, citing a recent case where a Tiktok user committed suicide because she was cyberbullied by individuals hiding behind a troll page.
The five youth concur that returning to the outside world after all restrictions have been fully lifted won’t be so simple.
“It won’t be easy adapting to the new normal. Life just won’t be the same as before – it may never be the same again – and we’ve no choice but to study harder and smarter than ever,” Hanif says.
But despite the difficulties, Cathryn believes that there will be some positive takeaways.
“We’ve all gone through a change in lifestyle and after this, we won’t take the little things for granted. We’ll hopefully have more empathy and kindness. We’ll realise we’re all in this together because one infected person is potentially a threat to the whole community,” she says.
“Our consciousness will be heightened and we won’t be as selfish as we were before this pandemic,” she concludes.