COVID-19: THIS IS WHERE LOVE STARTS

It was March at that time. The sun was scorching hot, and the rays started to shine through the whole compartment of mine. I was getting ready to go to class when the beeping sound of my notification came in.

Beep…beep…

I found out that my class was cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Soon after, it was announced that every student should head back to their hometown. I called my parents to inform them regarding this matter, and they decided to come and pick me up on the next morning.

***

It is May now. It has been almost two months since I last go out. I missed to hear the sound of the crashing waves, going out for a meet up with my friends and being in IIUM Kuantan to go for classes. But, this is what I need to do in order to support the frontliners. They had been working hard to cut the chain of this outbreak, so staying home is the least than I can do. In the meantime, the government had released the order called Restriction Movement Order (RMO) that requires us to stay at home while some businesses need to be shut down for a period of time. Many people are affected by this order, and this is where love started to spread.

As we all know, everyone cannot go to work during this time. Some people lost their work, some people lost their salary, but what is more saddening is that some people lost their family member too. However, looking back on the bright side, this is the moment where people started to help each other. Some of us donated masks and face shields to the hospital while others provide delicious foods to the frontliners. Some influencers even created a platform where people can donate their money easily and share it on their social media. Everyone is making an effort to support each other’s back, which shows that love started to spread throughout the whole country without taking race, religion and social classes into account.

Since I am staying home, I helped my dad with his volunteer work, which is to give out food packs and some cash to the needy. This might sounds simple but the process is very tiring. We ordered some basic necessities from the suppliers and pack them according to the name list of the receivers. The objectives of this volunteer work is to help the poor in reducing their burden during this critical time as well as to provide a platform for the rich to donate some of their money. The funds that we received reached RM25000 so far, which proves that this volunteer work had received a lot of supports from the people and I can safely say that this volunteer work is a success. God bless all the donators for their kindness. I am amazed to see how people are willing to help the strangers. They did not know each other, and they did not know my dad too but having a big heart leads them to do so. I realised that the money that we have now are not fully ours, a part of them belongs to the others too. Sharing is caring, right?

During this blissful month of Ramadan, I am grateful that I can spend my time with my family. The joy of being able to prepare for iftar with my mum and my siblings is indescribable. Since I was away from my family during Ramadan last year, I really cherish this moment a lot. Honestly, it has been a long time since I last celebrated Ramadan together with the whole family. But now, everyone is home and this is the chance for us to strengthen the relationship between the family members. Our love has always been strong, but it becomes stronger when we are together.

Love for others are important, but self-love is the most important thing to me. Back in campus, I was not able to do things I love because I lack of time. Writing and reading to people’s opinion are have always been my favourite. Since I have a lot of free time during this quarantine, I decided to create my own WordPress site where I can post my personal opinions, poems and some pictures of foods that I cooked. Now that I have my own site, I feel less boring staying at home because I enjoy doing what I am up to right now.

Aside from blogging, cooking is my passion too. Do you ever go to the kitchen at 3:00 am to bake some cookies and feel so satisfied that you own the whole kitchen by yourself? Because I do! I love to snap some pictures of the cookies and dishes I made, and it is funny to see that my Instagram is slowly turning into a food magazine. Trying out new recipes, experimenting new ingredients and chilling with my siblings in the kitchen is a memorable moment to me. You can never tell how much we laughed to each other’s jokes and the stories they told never disappoint me. I am grateful that I am blessed with a loving family that brightens up every day of mine. They annoyed me a lot but I might end up putting myself in tears if we have to part ways again later. Absence makes the heart grows fonder, does not it? It sounds a tad bit absurd but little did we know, siblings are always like that. We uttered the phrase “I hate you” but deep inside, no one knows how much love we have for them.

This outbreak had taught me the real meaning of love. The word love always gives the feeling of euphoria to me. However, love can be categorized into many groups that include love towards God, love towards family and love towards strangers. I was so blind before, I always thought love towards your partner is the only love that exists. I was wrong, and now I have learnt it. Looking at how this calming world turns into a chaotic one, it scares me for a while. But, the feeling was washed away by the love that was shown by the Malaysians and the people around me. Hopefully, this COVID-19 outbreak will end soon so we can start living our lives like how we used to. Together, let us break the chain.