The year was 2018. Ronny had just entered his second semester at college and was loving his newfound freedom. He had made friends like Amit and Daniel, with whom he would bunk classes, sit and talk for hours about new crushes, heartbreaks, plan random trips, and crib about assignments. For the first time in their lives, they had the power to make decisions for themselves.
Life was going smoothly until one day when the unthinkable happened. It was March 2020. Ronny and his friends were walking to the metro station after finishing their classes for the day. Ronny was casually browsing his social media feed when he came across the breaking news: “PM announces 21-day lockdown as Covid-19 cases continue to rise.” Amit and Daniel were glued to their phones, too.
“Three weeks will be over in a jiffy,” Ronny said casually, while the others nodded, as the trio headed home. Those three weeks quickly turned into months and the months turned into one full year. While they were still trying to comprehend the reality of it all, they felt as if their lives had been fast-forwarded. It seemed like it was only yesterday that they attended the college orientation and now they were set to finish college while logging off from their last exam online without any goodbye hugs. Their hopes of throwing graduation caps in the air and celebrating the moment together were crushed, as the convocation happened virtually in 2021.
“The class of 2021 didn’t,” Ronny said as memories of his virtual graduation ceremony flashed in his mind.
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