The passing year abounded in crucial and unexpected events in the planet and in a country that frequently took distant our sense of stableness and security. How will 2022 be remembered by a past student?
Short Moments of Normality
The coming end of the year prompts us to reflect on the days that have passed away. It cannot be hidden that in late 2021 many of us expected to remainder a fresh year, dreaming of the end of the pandemic and returning to average life. The academic year 2021/22 began under the sign of uncertainty related to the mode of survey and problems which caused its abrupt changes. For me, this year was besides a fight for completing undergraduate studies and preparing for the most crucial day of life – the wedding.
The breakthrough of December and January caused the student group concerns about whether they would return to the university and how the session would be conducted. It is impossible to hide – these are not conditions conducive to science, and as you know – the session does not ask, the session is. Somewhere far on the horizon, they were delirious about the crisis in Ukrainian-Russian relations, but it was far adequate enough to focus on passing and exams. Among the media events, however, the most crucial seemed to be the crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border caused by the Taliban's takeover of power in Afghanistan and the politics of Alexander Lukashenko. On the net we were flooded by reports of the situation at our borders, from different sides we heard conflicting guidelines on how we should think. Kabul, however, was very far away, and we did not stay on the border very often, so we rapidly moved on to a average academic everyday life.
For my colleagues at the Faculty of past of the University of Warsaw, this meant preparing the desired, stationary technological conferences, which was part of their effort to resume student life, which ceased for the duration of the pandemic.
It seemed to everyone that the desired relief was coming – the planet began to return to normal. We took off the uncomfortable masks, we met in a larger group, and the number of cases of covid began to decrease.
Big and anxious hearts
But the state of returning to the old, average planet for us did not last long. In a abrupt and violent way, all thesis about the end of the communicative begun in 1992 by Francis Fukuyama came to an end on 24 February. The day the full-scale war began in Ukraine. They went off to think about college, and fear for the future and loved ones troubled many people in the student community. For us past students, it was a very akin minute to a certain another morning, which took place 83 years ago. For a generation that is not consciously reaching straight into our country's military activities, the shock was amazing – it drew a paralyzing awareness that the subject of war could besides affect us, and images that we know from the pages of the past of the tragic 20th century or reports from the mediate East may repeat right next to us. We were brutally stripped of our sense of security.
Fear and stress associated with this event made learning, work and average functioning difficult. Students were heavy active in helping refugees – this service did not exclude student activity, but the second frequently suffered from it. I woke up at 4:00 a.m. myself after the exam to go to the Ursyn Arena, where I was waiting in a Boy Scout uniform and found out that I had yet passed my life-threatening exam. The choice between student duties and the duties of humanity and religion was highly difficult. Many of my friends went to the border to give at least a plate of hot soup to the bordered mothers and children. Others organized collections to buy drugs and weapons for fighting cities and troops. There were informal places of residence, food gatherings and the most needed food and textual articles, which people coming to our country could not have. Young people were chatting at stations waiting for help. Despite fear, it was an extraordinary time, due to the fact that it showed human solidarity and common assistance – something that is hard to experience in the grey and peaceful everyday life.
https://magazineconcept.pl/publication/concept-nr-102/We fight different battles
The following months brought the first average Easter – from a Catholic position it was the first Christmas since the beginning of the pandemic that I could celebrate in accordance with all the liturgical regulations in the church and in the Church, with the full community of believers. After months of cold and dark, we welcomed the spring and the flower of the nature around us with joy and rest. In order to enjoy a small warmth, we again began to celebrate our youth and to praise the miracle of creation, taking distant the thought of what is happening in the east. For me, spring was 1 large night's writing undergraduate at the University Library of Warsaw and returning under cover of night to its tiny area in the distant Bemow. I must admit that the conflict for endurance – surviving and studying – made it hard for me to remember everyday reflections about the current planet situation.
This year's summertime was peculiarly hot – repeated heat and associated natural disasters reminded us again of the climate crisis, which despite wars and interest in another subjects, continues and develops with the improvement of consumerism and the unreflective individualism that demolished our world. Although we frequently see and hear about ways of caring about the planet and the climate, large corporations inactive do not think about the consequences of their actions produce hundreds of harmful objects and foods, which, erstwhile they scope the oceans and landfills in tons, poison our Earth and dangerously bring us closer to the disastrous script presented in the movie "Interstellar".
No change in the East
With the coming months of this year, we are accustomed to war – refugees have been deployed to fresh locations, Sanah yet played on Warsaw's Torwar, and the presence of Ukrainian language in the public space ceased to surprise us. This showed us how easy it is to numb ourselves to large evil even if these do not concern us directly. The blue-yellow flag has become a way for many to increase the content of their wallets, and the war subject has been utilized to warm up social conflicts.
September was for me the first days of matrimony that brought me into a fairy tale state. I started another college and everything would seem beautiful. This year's autumn was highly warm and beautiful – returning to the university was so an highly pleasant experience. Then there were another problems on the horizon: reports of a serious energy crisis and university announcements that distant education could return again through difficulties in paying for college heating, cruel treatment of civilians by Iran, China and Russia, and subsequent episodes of bloody war in Ukraine.
Throughout the year we were not spoiled by inflation – rising food prices caused many difficulties in maintaining a simple man and feeding families. For me, as a working student, leaving expanding amounts of money in grocery stores was a origin of extra stress. The subject of housing problem in large cities like Warsaw has returned again – prices of the cheapest and smallest premises have besides increased.
Although it would seem that the end of the pandemic would end the madness of conspiracy theories, the war rekindled them. It turned out that again, as in the case of the Holocaust tragedy, if any do not experience, they will not believe. This shows that we haven't learned much in the last decades and centuries.
Sun flashes
The passing year showed us how crucial it is to appreciate the happy and good moments and to hold on to them erstwhile our planet is haunted by the large Winter. The past fewer years have experienced us a lot. Did that weaken us? Maybe. But this besides taught us resourcefulness and hardened our characters. We began to learn to live in the hard realities of our world. However, endurance is not possible without value, closeness, and intent in life. Without elements that let to dream and give hope – whether divine or earthly – it is hard for a man to walk alone through cold winds of history. Peace is not eternal – so let us taste all component of it and remember that in order to keep it, the contribution of the full society is needed.
