From Campus to Home

Losing our Individual Space in the Pandemic

Abstract

The day I had left the campus for home last year in March, little did I know that it would take another whole year to return to the place that gave me “my space”. With the unprecedented Covid-19 first wave in 2020 and the announcement of the nationwide lockdown, our Institution, too, vacated the students from campus.
The lockdown made me come back to my family for a longer period, a habit that I had outgrown for the past eight years. On one hand, I was relieved to be with my elderly parents during a catastrophe but on the other hand, I felt a sudden encroachment on my individual or personal space.
I missed the campus and realized that the residential campus provided me with a social life apart from academics. It provided me with a space for interaction, discussion, and debate that inspired self-growth and self-discovery. Through the years on campus not only did I learn about research methods or statistical procedures, but the place also nurtured me as a human being. My stay on campus acquainted me with students from varied backgrounds and cultures imbibing in me a sense of tolerance and empathy. A personal space that fostered in me the importance of free-thinking. I learned from the independent life to have a voice; a voice to raise in required circumstances and ensure accountability.