Virtual orientation, online teaching, compulsory quarantine for inbound students, and suspension of on-campus accommodation for the locals……  You may be badly let down by these abnormalities, albeit interim, because school life ought to be colourful and productive especially on the campus which has ever been purported to be the most fascinating and spacious in Hong Kong.  No wonder you are discontent with such an arrangement, as a large part of it has already been implemented for the whole Spring Term.  Your tiredness of having the same mode of schooling in the Fall Term is totally empathised with.  It is another kind of “battle fatigue” (accurately “COVID-19 pandemic fatigue”)!  Self-discipline and patience do help mitigate this predicament, but the linchpin of the treatment plan is, in my opinion, a mixed doze of sanguinity and fortitude.

While we keep losing interest in maintaining precautionary efforts to combat the virus and feeling upset about the alternative pattern in daily life, some people have got creative to outlast the dragonish plague e.g. baking toilet paper cakes to boost sales volume, and commercialising contactless panels for elevators at affordable cost.  They know well, by now, that mask-free commuting and face-to-face tuition etc. are not entitlements.  And neither is the free air we used to breathe every day.  We need to overcome adversity to achieve personal feats.  We are required to live our lives like what the former US president Barack Obama encouraged the class of 2020 a couple of months ago, “……leave behind all the old ways of thinking……set the world on a different path”.  Again, sanguinity and fortitude are vital in this transformation.

Admittedly, practising sanguinity and fostering fortitude are easier said than done.  We have to wider our sight of the figures with these traits particularly those vulnerable than us.  Lately, I have been thrilled by the 11-year-old UK skateboarder Sky Brown who took a hellacious wreck at an indoor park facility and was reportedly suffering skull fractures and broken bones in her left wrist and hand that required surgery.  Covered in bruises and lying next to a teddy bear in her hospital bed, Brown told us “……it’s okay to fall sometimes.  I’m just going to get back up and push even harder.  I know there’s a lot going on in the world right now and I want everyone to know that whatever we do we’ve got to do it with love and happiness.”  What a lovely attitude after an accident which obviously brought her close to the edge.

Could you see the sanguinity and fortitude inside this little one?  I believe they are also buried treasure of you.  The “battle fatigue” and the battle itself might destroy our ambition, but they cannot defeat us.

Sincerely yours,

Irene Ng
Director
I·CARE Centre for Whole-person Development