I’m sure you’re all quite fed up of seeing and hearing about the Coronavirus constantly, with the news and government update ads on TV, so today I thought I’d write a blog post about it… with a little twist. Instead of telling you about the daily death toll or the effect it’s having on our economy, I’m going to tell you about some of the positive impacts that Coronavirus is having on our world today, because well, it’s good to be positive in times like these!
The first is one that, whilst we might not all be there yet, we’re all definitely experiencing - working from home. Learning to adapt and work from home has been a tough journey for me, and I imagine it has been the same for a lot of you. It is hard to learn to concentrate in new environments, especially with the added distractions of our family, pets and more, but learning to work from home successfully is actually quite a powerful tool for us all. For those who are not in their last year of college, adapting to work from home is going to help you keep on track over the summer and during holidays throughout the rest of your time at PCA. For those of you who, like me, are in your final year of study, this is a key skill that will help us adapt to working in new environments when we get jobs after graduating, whether those are work-at-home jobs or not. Once you’ve found a way to successfully work from home it can be applied to other situations in the future, and that’s actually really useful for us all.
Photo by Harriet Moore
It’s also giving us all a chance to learn new skills. For those who are lucky enough to have more free time than usual, or even those of us who are having to adapt our current projects, this has given us a chance to learn something new. It might be to do with your practice, perhaps you’re a Painting, Drawing and Printmaking student who is adapting to find new ways to print from home, or perhaps you’ve found a new love for home baking and have made more bread than you can shake a baguette at, but times like these give us the chance to try something new or develop our skills. For example, I imagine a lot of you are having similar issues to me in that half the food you’d usually buy is constantly out of stock, so you’re having to try and find new ways to make your favourite dishes or simply adapting your usual recipes to fit whatever's left in the cupboards. Who knows, maybe we’ll all find new favourite meals?
Photo by Amelia Rodger
One major change, which I’m sure a lot of you would have picked up on, is how much lockdowns and travel bans have positively affected our environment. The levels of pollution have significantly decreased across the world, especially noticeable in countries such as China and India. Not only this, but people have noticed the canals in Venice become clear and the wildlife has been returning to them, including fish and swans in their waterways.
Photo by Aurel Boriçi
Lastly, I think we can all agree that this has given us all a bigger sense of community. Whether that be your local community such as your neighbours, or being a part of an online community by joining in with things like #PCASUAprilMakers, we’ve all found ways to keep in touch with everyone. I know I’ve been making a bigger effort to check in with people, to see if they’re okay or if they fancy a chat and I’ve been video calling my friends to keep up to date with what they’re doing during the lockdown. That being said, this is such a difficult time for us all and it’s understandably quite a lonely one, especially for those who are living alone, so if you ever need support please do get in touch. The SU Team and Student Support are always here for you, even if you just need someone to chat to, so drop us an email or message and get in touch.
Stay safe and stay home,
Best,
Harriet Moore
Marketing and Enterprise Lead
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