Page 10 - Gazette1_63

STUDENT'S MAGAZINE \

CORONA

ON THE

MIND

YUENBING OOI
(#15 - YUENBING 4/330)

UK government.(2011, 22 Oct). Digital scan of
original KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON poster
[digital image]. Retrieved from https://commons.
wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Keep-calm-and-carry-on-
scan.jpg. Web. 13 April 2020

“Keep calm and carry on”
The Coronavirus is everywhere, literally and metaphorically. It is all over the news, it is all over Instagram, and it is all over
the internet; everyone is talking about it. People are condemning one another for not staying home, and as much as Pres-
ident Trump would like to suggest otherwise, the pandemic is a real threat. Malls are being shut down, classes are being
taken at home, and tissue paper is being fought over; unless you’ve been living under a rock, your life has most likely been
affected by the pandemic in some way. It’s hard not to be anxious about something, especially when information about
how deadly or how prevalent it is is constantly being shoved into your face, for better or for worse. Especially when those
under your care or those significant people in your life are far away from you, that anxiety extends not only to yourself, but
for worry of something bad happening to them as well. As creatures that take pride in being rational, this intense anxiety
often manifests itself in precautions that will often prove us wrong; from demanding multiple redundant health checkups
to stockpiling food and supplies that might be more useful in the hands of those that more desperately need them. While
I’m not saying that we should downplay the situation (denial is clearly not the way to go here), we shouldn’t feel so anxious
and we should always try to keep ourselves calm especially during these hard times of crisis, where irrationality only helps
to accentuate the problem.

9