It’s New Year’s Eve, a new page on your book of life starts. You close your eyes and think of what you want for the year to come. You make lists, plan, you think nothing can hold you back. And then a pandemic starts.

The way we’ve been hit this year with COVID 19 has seemed to put a stop in the world, in our lives, and we just seem to be waiting. Waiting for a vaccine, waiting for it to stop, for when everything will get back to normal. Confinement isn’t easy. And yes, it’s half-way through the year, and let’s face it, our plans cannot just be waiting. This is the time to change and adapt, to think outside the box.

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Recently I reread The Diary of Anne Frank, and I kept thinking, what can we learn from it? Anne Frank and her family were confined with another family and a dentist inside a very small room for over two years. In her diary, Anne thinks of confinement and deprivation, as well as about some deep thoughts about humanity and identity.

What can we learn from this story? Firstly, living in confinement is not a choice. We must do it to protect ourselves and the ones we love.

If we have family and are in confinement with them, things are expected to get a bit nerve-racking. People will fight, that’s just a fact. This is a great time to exercise patience and learn to accept people the way they are.

We learn that, although plans have changed, life goes on. Anne Frank is facing death, and still continues to study French, math, history, and writing in her diary. Though she doesn’t go to school anymore, she can still learn. We adapt plans, not give up on them. And what a better time to notice our incredible adaptation skill! Humans are amazing, we have done transform our lives because we can adapt easily.

Although we are in confinement, we can still see the sun, take walks outside, and this sort of thing. Think of living in an annex for two years, and not being able to even open your curtains, because that is a good way to get killed. No matter how bad it is, we must learn to look at others and realize there are people in worse situations. Always try to find a way to help people – even if it is just by staying at home if you can, so you won’t put the essential workers at more risk than they already are.

So, what you have learned this year, so far?