a true friend during the pandemic essay
Answers
Explanation:
Exactly a year ago, I wrote that Winnie the Pooh was a source of comfort for me while growing up, not only did he help me get to sleep, he also helped me understand the importance of friendship. Little did I realize that, a year on, his words would provide more comfort than I could ever imagine.
Like most people I have spent the past five months in isolation. In that time, I have experienced loss and grief, and a series of ups and downs. One of the biggest challenges has been not being able to see those closest to me, to spend time with them and embrace them. In some small way, this reminds me of the stories that I have read and continue to read as part of my work with UNICEF’s Middle East and North Africa Regional Office. I have pored over the discussions in Album ‘11’ and Book of Dreams projects, listening to the dreams of returning home, embracing friends, and clinging to a sense of normality. Winnie the Pooh reminds me that despite distance we are stronger and braver than we think.
Isolation has taught me how to adapt in the face of adversity. Time spent with friends has changed. I find that I am spending much more time having phone calls and playing games. I guess you could say my friendships have become much more childlike, reverting to play. Through the children’s stories that I have heard, and my time in isolation, I have learnt the importance of play. Displaced children often talk about their friends and their need to play to make light of a bad situation. This reaffirms Pooh’s second point: we are smarter than we think.
Winnie the Pooh’s words have taught me a lot of things, most importantly that despite distance, friendship makes us stronger, braver, and smarter. If it wasn’t for the support that I have had during isolation I wouldn’t have felt any of these things. I have clung onto the words of Winnie-the-Pooh to remind me that the despite the distance placed between me and those that I love, I can still carry my friendships close.
To all my friends who have stood by my side (including Winnie the Pooh), thank you.
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We need our friends more than ever right now.
I have spent the past 100 days of lockdown in the sleepy Warwickshire village where I grew up. Coming back to the place I once called home, I've become aware that a friendship of mine that once burned bright is now slowly extinguishing itself. Like striking a match on a windy day, all attempts to rekindle it have been snuffed out. That realisation didn't happen upon me overnight but was rather a slow dawning that came after a constellation of silences and scores of unreplied messages. "Don't take it personally," some friends have charitably said to me over voice notes sent from afar. "I'm sure it's not the end," others have said.
During this time, I've felt as if I'm hovering in the threshold of a door I had once shut firmly behind me. I lived here during my twenties until I moved to London for work and formed some really important friendships during that period.
Lockdown, for me, has been replete with lessons about my interpersonal relationships. Having the time to sit back and reflect on the friends who are present and engaged in my daily life has been life-affirming. In the dark times of the pandemic, seeking out those who are willing to lend an ear, or who bring levity to difficult moments has made me realise which friends spark joy. Then, of course, there have been sad, difficult realisations about friendships that are no longer what they once were.
Not all friendships end with a bang. Not all friendships end with a door being slammed in your face. Sometimes that door just imperceptibly swings shut, without so much as a squeak or creak. I've been afraid to even write down these thoughts lest they bring mortal form to the sense of loss I've been feeling. It's not easy to cope when a friendship ends.