The scare of COVID-19 for college students

Hey there!! Thanks for coming through. Around the end of April 2020 I wrote an article on how COVID-19 was affecting college students and today I have decided to share my views from a few months back. Enjoy :-)

What started off as a social media joke quickly escalated into a real life nightmare for most Zimbabwean college students as the likelihood of a prompt college shutdown surged. The rumours materialised in two shakes as a closure of schools was confirmed. Could this be compared to the 1918 Spanish flu that took out more than fifty million people? Was history really repeating itself? No one had answers to those questions but one thing was definite; everyone was at risk.

The virus was out there and it was real. All those social media corona memes and vines ceased to be funny. The real threat was here and it brought with it a lot of fear.

Slowly but surely panic built up at campus grounds. Some gave in to drugs to try and suppress the fear and anxiety. Boys flocked to girls’ hostels and girls to boys’ hostels in an attempt to maximise on the remaining time as there was no guarantee of ever reuniting in the future. Death was an undeniable possibility. The chapel grounds were littered with others who prayed for an intervention. A few were already practising social distancing while most gave no heed to the fact that this virus was spreading like a veld fire. At this point everyone had an opinion as to how to get out of the mess and indubitably most were acting irrationally.

Despite all the urges to maintain social distancing, church gatherings still remained popular as some turned to their faith in response to the fear that was building up.

The last few days at school felt for many like a long walk on a tight rope. Students were dicing with death. Still stuck at school, they knew very well that the virus; that death was lurking around the corner but just did not know which corner it was exactly. It was very similar to the case of being aware of the presence of a snake in your house but not knowing exactly where it is hiding. No one knew where exactly the virus was but it was there. At this point there was no doubt that home was the safe haven. On the day of closure, students did not need any reminder of what to do. In no time all hostels were cleared and students headed home.

University of Zimbabwe students having to return school blankets and move out of the residence following the school shutdown that was implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The relief of having left the crowded school grounds and the joy of being in the comfort of home was short lived. A greater fear messed around with those subtle feelings. Most students could not flee from the fact that they could have been asymptomatically infected already and were now endangering their families. Non-existent symptoms were observed by many in that fear. Going home was a leap in the dark. There was no confirmation of the infections both among students and those who had been at home already.

The virus itself was indeed the primary scare but far beyond it was the fear of an uncertain future. Schools had already been closed and now the nation was going into a lock down. At this point Lucky Dube’s song “Prisoner” hit differently. As if he was predicting the future, the late artist sang,

“I looked all around me But to see nothing But four grey walls staring at me The policeman said to me, son They won' t build no schools anymore All they'll build will be prison, prison”

At this point people were entitled to imprisonment in their own homes. Hope made it to the list of scarce commodities. Surrounded by such ambiguity one can never run away from questioning reality. Is life ever going back to normal? Will schools ever reopen? For how long will people remain confined by walls? When will this prison sentence end?

The fact that going outside became a crime quickly turned home into some sort of prison. The worst part of the sentence was that it was undefined. Anything was possible. It could be a week, a month, a year or a lifetime. The mystery remains.

“There is light at the end of the tunnel”, I have often heard people saying. It becomes a greater problem when the light begins to scare you more than the darkness; when you become comfortable in the darkness. In as much as the fear of being stuck at home for an unpredictable period of time is great, it is incomparable to the fear of returning to a world that might still have the virus hidden somewhere. In as much as any student might want to return to school, is safety really guaranteed? Can the nation prevent another spread? Is there a legit escape plan?

A pandemic comes along with a lot of worries and fears. COVID-19 did not exempt college students from the list of victims. Uncertainty remains the highlight of life. At this point only time can tell what lies ahead.