Life in Lockdown
From a teenager’s perspective
Crinkled leaves, shaded auburn and crimson, cascade down in trickling ribbons, twirling in the dancing whirl of wind and shimmering grey dust particles. They sweep the sharp blades of grass, glistening with globules of clear iridescent liquid, as they brush against them in an effort to keep moving. Towering trees stand like sentries surrounding the meadow, covered with myriads of traced black ink lines that wither and curl around the trunk. Above in the azure blue sky that seems to stretch for miles and miles over the soft green blanket of ground below are wisps of clouds that lazily drift with the gust of the passing morning’s breeze.
It’s not much, but it’s beautiful.
I twist away from my dream which the frosted glass panes separate me from, and stare around the four walls that confine me in the space I can’t help but know every inch of. The cell walls are the yellow of the Tuscan Sun and peek out through the plasters of cello-taped Biology notes and faded polaroids. The figures in the photos show off big beaming smiles, brown eyes squeezed shut with laughter, and arms draped nonchalantly around each other. I strain to remember those times, but my efforts are futile. The Biology notes scrawled with untidy lettering as I had hastily tried to catch everything my teacher was saying seem just as foreign. The words are barely legible.
The shimmering device, my saviour and my angel, sits majestically on the ebony desk, its open screen enticing me. The black screen is overwhelmed by a burst of light as the computer wakes up, ready for another day of overuse and abuse. Far less superior objects litter the space around. Uneven stacks of yellowing textbooks lay discarded, their sticky pages refusing to open; a plethora of broken-nibbed black pens with all the ink drained out; forgotten pages of algebra carelessly stained with mahogany of old coffee. I flick a scuttling black spider across the History notebook it is crossing, disrupting its path. I watch as it flails its legs about, struggling to get its bearings. I can’t help but watch transfixed at the miniature me.
The duvet slithering off my bed is a startling viridescent green that seems to shine with all the colour and vibrancy that has left my body. The pillows fall defeatedly, slumped against the wooden headboard, succumbed to the weight of the cartons that sit steadfastly on them. The cartons glow red with intricate swirls of writing that read the name of their contents. Inside there are the faint remains of crunchy yellow stringy noodles, that float like the dead along the sewer of spicy sauce that emits an odour of a mixture of rotten bananas and sour milk that makes my nose curl inwards in distaste. The long cylindrical chopsticks roll, gaining speed with every centimeter traveled, until they finally successfully tip off the bed with all the freedom I wish I had.
I sit on the velvet chair and as the protesting creak engulfs my ears, I avert my eyes from the demanding pages of unfinished worksheets splattered with patches of dried tears and face the window once more- my little glimpse of heaven.
While the whole world struggles to cope and survive in these difficult, unprecedented times, it is vital that we still maintain human connections with each other as much as possible. Despite that our communication will be mostly through online platforms like FaceTime and Skype, seeing the other person and just having a quick chat can really brighten up the day of all involved. Every day I like to video call one of my friends or a family member I haven’t spoken to in a while and this makes my day become so much happier and definitely less stressful. I encourage everyone to take the time out of their busy schedules to give someone a ring every week and watch how much you end up looking forward to that call!
