The current situation faced by the whole world right now is something very unusual, at least for my generation since we have never been through any kind of threat such as a pandemic. I can imagine all of the troubles everybody is going through and I hope that you and your family are alright! My circumstances have been very different to many other families being together through this challenging time; decisions about whether I will go home or stay here in Singapore have been making my life very hard. At first, I felt very overwhelmed since my family, as well as the boarding house, ensured me the freedom to make my own decision. Obviously, that was the right thing for me but also a lot more pressure than someone telling me to fly home or stay here. That is why I came to the personal conclusion to stay in Singapore as of now. My school had preponed our spring break by a week to have the teachers prepare online classes in case of our school shutting down. If the school shuts down, I will make my way home until August; otherwise, I will be home in June as planned. Right now everybody seems positive towards the school continuing since public schools are still open and Singapore handles its cases very well. Otherwise, life is Singapore is quite usual. Everybody is still going to work, going out with friends and following their hobbies. Precautions like keeping social distancing are in place, and since February all significant events have been cancelled. However, the virus is not very present in Singapore, you maybe get a hint of it by governmental signs and advertisements to stay safe, but otherwise, people seem calm. I think the biggest issue is the uncertainty every country and every person is facing; so many questions about how long this will go on when vaccinations will be released and what we are supposed to do in the meantime, are also addressed here. But more than preaching us to stay safe and follow instructions to decrease the spread is not possible from the governmental side, because nobody knows. I am confident, however, that we will get through this and hopefully it prepares us for future global threats. But now to something more positive: Chinese New Year Break. Since the majority in Singapore is Chinese, we have a one week holiday for Chinese New Year. Most of our Chinese students went home to celebrate with their families while my friends staying back in Singapore used the time to relax and catch up on school work. I spend my holiday with my sister, the break fell right into hers. We spend the week doing some sightseeing, we went to the beach (on Lara's urgent wish) and enjoyed the time together after 8 months of not seeing each other in real life. It was really nice to have part of my family here, and I felt almost proud of showing her my home for the next 1.5 years. Or as of now the next year and three months, time here seems to be just rushing by. After CNY break school life continued, obviously it was weird to have all our Chinese students in quarantine but seeing what happened the next months it was definitely right for Singapore to take such early measures. February went, as usual, we wrote some smaller exams, handed in assignments and try to not drown in school work - sounds like a normal IB circumstance to me. Nearly every day, we received new updates regarding the Covid-19 virus, the most prominent that our long-awaited project week in June got cancelled. Most of our students were very sad that this unique experience and chance to have a fun and meaningful trip with your friends got taken away from them, however in seeing the spread as well as seriousness of the virus it was the right decisions. More insanely sad news approached us as we heard that graduation dinner is cancelled and that the class of 2020 will not even have a proper graduation ceremony. Later we got the news that their IB exams got cancelled as well, this was a time of a lot of uncertainty for our grade 12, but we tried to help them through it as much as possible. Two days ago we had a little Boarding House graduation dinner for them, they all got a certificate stating their graduation from the boarding house and the whole evening was full of fun but also a lot of tears. Our holidays are full of activities, the gym and swimming pool is open nearly every day, and we have fun cooking sessions as well as small bike tours. There is definitely a lot to do, maybe next week we have the chance to sleep in tents on the football field after a pool party and BBQ, which we are all very excited about.
Sadly two of my best friends had to already head home, but through facetime and everything else we will stay in contact as much as possible. Still, I already miss them a lot. As of now, we are continually waiting on some sort of news telling us whether the school is closing or continuing, whether Singapore takes further measures regarding a curfew or stay-at-home orders and other issues facing us as well as everybody around the world. As I said earlier, I hope everybody around you is doing fine! And for everybody who reached out to me, thank you! I can maybe use this blog as a way of updating you through the next weeks, but right now, I can tell you that I am healthy, happy, and in the right environment for me. My decision of staying here comes from two ends, one being my safety which is better here in Singapore and the second regarding the boarding house. I asked myself whether I am needed at home or instead here in the boarding house and for me, it was clear that everybody here in the house needs the others to get through this. Right now, the community is everything that is holding us up, and it just doesn't feel right to me to leave my family here in Singapore and not being there for them. I don't know if everybody agrees, but this community has given me so much through the last months that it now feels right to give something back in forms of bringing some smiles amongst us, being here to exchange knowledge about case numbers etc. and sharing some very good advises I get from my mum :)