“Every cloud has a silver lining” goes the old adage. And it is this maxim which has inspired me to overcome my initial dismay and make the most of the dreary November month we have all had to spend in this second lockdown.
Like many of my fellow students, since returning to school for sixth form, life has been pretty non-stop. I faced inner turmoil at the start of the year over my A-level choices, a barrage of assessments shortly after, on top of sport training, music practices and my part-time weekend job. In fact, as school students, I think we have had a better deal out of this lockdown than any group in the country because we have still been able to see our friends at school, use our school gyms, as well as doing away with some of the extra hassle of school life.
Firstly, there is the journey to school. While normally I can expect to struggle to board buses and face heavy traffic on my journey to school, over lockdown the cars have largely evaporated and I even made it to school in 25 minutes one day - a PB. The only problem has been that the buses arrive so quickly that what says 5 minutes on the app is actually 2 minutes and so by the time I get to the stop, the bus has already gone!
Then there is rowing. During a normal school term, along with my fellow rowers from other schools and boat clubs, I have to wake up at 6am every Saturday, to row on the freezing cold Thames. Over lockdown our boat club has been prohibited from operating sessions outside of school hours so I have had to sacrifice my weekly dose of hypothermia for an extended nap in bed! As my fellow rower, Joe Murphy, quipped, ‘you would have to be even more masochistic than the average rower to be sad about that.’
Finally, there is my job as a football coach. While it is undoubtedly a fulfilling job, the work on Saturday and Sunday takes its toll after a long week at school. Thanks to lockdown and the furlough scheme, I have been able to earn 80% of my wage from the comfort of my own bed. I can’t quite envisage actually having to work for my wage once this lockdown is over!
Obviously, I can’t wait for things to return to normal, to be able to see friends and family whenever I please, and enjoy the normal calendar of school sports fixtures. But wow, this month has been refreshing.
