Last year this time, a friend even flew over from Tokyo to join the crew, and we spent a dramatic afternoon in Massachusetts nature after I finished classes for the day and celebrated with my criminal law professor for lunch, where it was sunny and suddenly raining cats and dogs, totally draining us while inspiring waves of laughter. This year, I turned 24 in the time of COVID-19, alone in my Harvard dorm.

But I was not really alone. I had more than 5 hours of classes that were conducted through Zoom.We had a French exam online, as well, with “Big Brother” aka our French professor watching over us via Zoom, where we had our cameras on throughout the test. 23 members of my Negotiation Workshop (for which I was assigned to role-play an evil corporation and had to negotiate a mock case with four parties that day — it was a 4-on-1 negotiation, with me being the one party everyone was fighting) sang “Happy Birthday” to me electronically, and I loved watching them across my laptop screen. It is surely a difficult time for everyone, to say the least. 

Throughout the day, I also “Zoom partied” with my family and friends in multiple small group-sessions. My family and I got together in spirit, despite being in four different places in the world. My mother blew out the candles on the cake my dad and herself had ordered, after I made my birthday wishes. My college bffs even conspired ahead of time to give me an unconventional surprise: first, they moved me to laughter with a tailor-made online karaoke playlist, and while “distracting me” through our e-karaoke, notified me to go downstairs and pick up whatever I see on the bench right outside my dorm building. I thought it might be some sort of joke, but agreed to comply. My heart was filled with a joy I had missed so much over the past few weeks of self-quarantine when I saw a box and a green plastic bag. The box contained two pieces of my favorite dessert: chocolate lava cake, while the plastic bag contained three large bottles of Dasani mineral water.

It is true that COVID-19 has forced us to withdraw from our normal lives: normalcy, which we always took for granted, is such a dream nowadays for all of us across the globe. Meanwhile, our loved ones are still here for us. It is so important to stay optimistic.