The COVID-19 pandemic left the senior class of 2020 very little room for closure. The starting days of March marked days of uncertainty and left everyone questioning the future of day-to-day life. COVID felt like a semicolon in a sentence with no phrase to follow. But even in such unprecedented times, people continue to find the good in a situation and celebrate life for what it is. I experienced one such celebration on my birthday this past May.
An hour before the surprise, I received a text from a friend asking me to come on a video call to wish me a happy birthday. Looking back on it now, that should’ve raised my suspicion. After all, in our current age of FaceTime and iMessage, rarely do people use GoogleMeets for one-on-one conversations! After I logged onto the meeting, the first thing I noticed was the sheer number of people in the virtual room. Slowly, one by one, each person began to turn their video on, and then all at once wished me a big happy birthday. We spent the next few hours chatting, catching up, and playing online games; everything we would’ve done in-person except, thanks to the quarantine, virtually. It was wonderful seeing friends I hadn’t seen in a while, now right in front of me. We tried hard to make the best of the cards we were dealt with and did our best to enjoy ourselves despite the circumstance. But what touched me the most was the fact that my friends had taken the time to plan my birthday in the midst of a pandemic.
Credit: contributed
Credit: contributed
Remembering the joy my friends brought me on my birthday, and wanting to spread it was the reason I, less than a month later, arranged a similar virtual celebration for another one of my friends. Along with a few others, I arranged to film a comedic tribute video of our friend for her birthday. In a few days, our group had filmed and posted the video. It was so fulfilling to see the birthday girl’s reaction when the time came, and it helped me realize that it truly is the small things that keep us going during difficult times.
Celebrating during COVID hasn’t been easy. News of tragedy strikes on a daily basis, and challenges continuously test our patience as individuals and as a community. But as the world continues to work towards the light at the end of a tunnel, it can be helpful to remember, “It is not how we live in the light that enlightens us, but it’s how we live in the dark.” — Rune Lazuli.
Rachita Iyer graduated from South Forsyth High School in Cumming in May, and is now a freshman at Georgia State University, majoring in nursing. Some of her favorite activities include reading, public speaking, participating in Mock Trial, and practicing an Indian classical dance called Bharatanatyam.
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