In this week’s Lockdown Diary Encompass alumnus Lujayn highlights the impact COVID-19 has had on student life:

“From March 2020 up until today everything is still changing. This year I was excited that I’m going to finish my journey in the University, waiting for my seminar project and the graduation ceremony. But because of COVID-19 all these events had been cancelled. I had done my seminar project online, and that was one of the weirdest experience, my partners live in Bethlehem and I live in Jerusalem. We hadn’t met at all, each one of us had worked on his/her own part, we discussed the ideas using video calls on Facebook and whatsapp, we contacted our supervisor also through Facebook and google classroom. Because of the lockdown, I couldn’t reach my University, I couldn’t meet my partners or my supervisor and I couldn’t reach the University in order access to some websites and resources. 

I wasn’t only away from my University, I also was away from my father’s family because they live in Ramallah and we weren’t allowed to move more than 500m, so my dad couldn’t meet up with his family for more than 5 months. COVID-19 had changed me, I became aware of many small things that I wasn’t paying attention to, I knew that life has a deeper meaning.”