“Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
Nothing better than an inspirational quote to temporarily inspire energetic and motivated feelings before resuming the numbness and lethargy that so many have succumbed to in the last year. I know I'm not alone in spending many of my days procrastinating and wallowing in the sorrow of piling work that I have no intention of attempting until its absolutely necessary.
It's only at about 2am when all screens are finally off and I'm left to my own devices do I suddenly have that Eureka moment. I'm going to sort my life out tomorrow, I say, get my shit together and be really proactive. Get those assignments done, watch the lectures, do some exercise - it's going to be great. So after setting an optimistic alarm on my phone, I sleep.
And that's the issue. I sleep, and somehow, that refreshed optimism from the night before disappeared somewhere along the way. The alarm went off about 4 hours ago and I've woken at 1pm again. Fuck.
This is the unfortunate cycle I've found myself in for the last few months. Nothing to wake up for, nothing to go to sleep for. It feels like I live in a different time zone to the early birds, but I'm comforted by the knowledge that I might actually be in the majority when it comes to my fellow Gen Z people.
Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how content you are with late nights and mornings, we can hope that's going to change very soon. But as they say, its the hope that kills you. Of course we can hope that pubs will be open by April/May, or that Summer holidays might be possible. To be honest, we can hope that Covid fucks right off and life goes back to normal but that's unrealistic.
Ultimately, hope is one of the few things that rarely dies. I say rarely because there are some circumstances which are in fact in hopeless, such as Man United's title 'charge' or Prince Andrew's reputation.
But in this instance, we are all hoping for a shred of normality. Hopes that we can actually socialise, actually get our money's worth for tuition in person, and actually have something to wake up for in the morning, and go to sleep for the night before. I believe it's these hopes that keep people sane in a time like this. And whilst many of the hopes are unrealistic and we're setting ourselves up for some prime disappointment, it remains crucial to believe that they might happen.
The number of times I say "I can't wait for the summer" is becoming unhealthy at this point. The prospect of having a normal, free, adult life is honestly too much to contain and it's something that no 18/19 year old has actually been able to experience properly yet as it was snatched from our grasp right at the moment it was first given to us. And whilst it may even have to wait until beyond this summer, at least we can hope, and nobody can take that away.
Comments