By Olha Viun, Ugrad Student at Chatham, Spring 2020

April 2020

Olha wrote this essay for the English Language Program Writing Contest and received an honorable mention.

Experience has shown that the best stories are personal ones: tremendous achievements, unexpected surprises and little misfortunes – everything is touching if it produces a strong impression on a reader. Building on this, let us take a glimpse at my way of looking for happiness during hard times. Oh, I have almost forgotten: my name is Alexandra, I am from Norway, and I have never expected such an unforeseen twist and turns of events in my life connected with … Well, you will find out soon with what.

April, 2019. Norway

“The weather promises to be nice: it’s gonna be 70°F,” says the TV hostess cheerfully. I finally make up my mind to take a breath of fresh air, and unwind after all the hustle and bustle of the studying process. After a while, I went to park, and when my thoughts were far away from present-day reality, someone called me on the phone:

“WOW, WHAT, NO WAY!” was my first reaction when I found out that I would study in the USA in a year. It meant to be an opportunity of a lifetime. It meant. Meant.

March, 2020. USA

“We have the strongest COVID19 testing system!” says CNN.

“The world faces the biggest pandemic of all time!” rattle freaked journalists on Fox News.

“On the top of all that, even ‘Shrek’ isn’t on Netflix!” disappointedly says my roommate, who is obviously not in such authority as news channels but is right for 100%.

Death after death, COVID19, COVID19, COVID19 – STOP! I. want. To. Be. Happy. Right now. Right here. Isolation is not a big deal. Destiny is destiny, and if it is giving me a ‘welcoming’ present in the guise of global pandemic, I accept it.

“How to pave the way to happiness in this inevitable isolation?” was my first logical question. “What is my hobby? Right, studying!”. After a while I add, “And that’s awfully pathetic… But still, I can… I can gather all my friends and even teachers to study online together, take various courses and improve ourselves! Isn’t that great?” Well, it was one of the greatest ideas of mine. After this splendid thought, I figuratively started taking lemons and making lemonade: looking for online courses, writing to people who might be interested in self-education, and creating a motivational environment for myself.

Speaking of environment, it is fortunate that I can study online: no distractors, no noise and no pressure on me. However, time pressure is the only tension: deadlines, deadlines, deadlines. Always having positive attitude to life and my passion for studying particularly, my motto is, “The stronger the wind blows, the tougher a tree has to be.” Therefore, if COVID quarantine gets harder, my time devoted to education increases as well. No time neither for procrastination nor sadness: just find your middle ground where you feel comfortable learning something new. On this positive note, I close my eyes, but when I wake up…

April, 2020. Norway

‘Whoosh, Alexandra, materialized here again, huh?’, at this moment I see myself as a NASA astronaut who jumps into the future and travels through time: after observing a classified virus that is threatening to all humankind, I return to my home country, safe and sound. The irony is that COVID19 is here as well. So, it was not time travel but a severe reality instead. In these difficult times, everyone needs remedy. I also need one. What is mine? Happiness. Happiness from my ability to study, to learn something new and develop in this worldwide imprisonment.

April, right now, 2020.

I have paved the way to happiness, have you?

By Lila Usquiano, English Language Program Student

April 2020

Lila wrote this essay for the English Language Program Writing Contest. She received an honorable mention. 

I am constantly impressed with how life insists on sending us messages at the most unexpected moments and how if we manage to receive and digest them, they are capable of giving an interesting and extraordinary turnaround to our lives.

Particularly, the last two weeks of March were extremely stressful for me. I do not remember having, during the year, days with such tension, chaotic situations that slipped one after another without even warning, days where 24 hours was not enough to read the news, talk to my family, and do my homework.

And right on the cusp of those moments, where I only had to decide what to do and what to leave out, who to look good with and who to look bad with, who to support and who to disappoint because of my apparent lack of time, I heard the casual words of a friend who unknowingly not only changed my mood but also gave me a clear purpose to follow this year.

His words were something similar to “In these moments when stress invades you for what you must do and blames you for everything that does not give you a chance to do, my only recommendation is that you do what you do, give yourself completely to what you decided to do without feeling bad about what you didn’t do and what you could be doing instead. Because whatever you choose, that choice comes from your heart and deserves your own recognition and gratitude.”

And despite perhaps having heard those same words countless times in the past, this time, curiously I managed to feel and internalize them in each of my cells and as if by some magic I understood for the first time what it means to live the moment to the fullest without getting caught in the past or the future.

If you have to describe it in words I would say that if you put all your attention and all your intention into the moment you are living in; if  you pass every time a thought of guilt approaches under the table; if you manage to see the details that surround you: the colors, the smells, the flavors; if you manage not to be so aware of the time; and if you manage to smile even if you are alone; you will realize an internal force that is getting bigger and bigger, filling your chest until you feel that it does not fit inside you, lowering your pulsations, and flooding you with an unusual feeling called peace.

My wishes, for all people, are that they can have the opportunity and the privilege of feeling this spectacular sensation more frequently and that we really learn to live in the now and fully enjoy it because the only thing we build is our present and it is this same one that gives us the power to enjoy life while we are living.