‘How are you?’

What a weird way to start the semester – I flew back into London from my home in Manila a little over two weeks ago in time to hear the prime minister announce the new lockdown measures. Although I really do miss going into class in person, I understand how important it is to stay safe and do my part in stopping the spread of the virus.

Leading up to the first week of this new semester, I moved into a new apartment and began preparing myself for the upcoming modules for my MBA programme. As I’m writing this, my first week back into the semester is almost over. After a long break over the holidays, I didn’t expect to be so excited to start learning again. As much as I enjoy a good break, I genuinely like having a schedule everyday where I allocate time for studying, non-academic reading, and relaxing. To me, creating a schedule during a lockdown has helped me reduce the amount of dragging and unmotivated days as I have a list of goals I set in mind for that day and week.

Other than starting new modules, I’ve also been getting back into doing at home workouts and trying new recipes with my flatmate in light of this third lockdown. Since I’m also jetlagged, I’m still waking up relatively early in the morning – meaning that I get a lot more out of the first part of my day. I have been spending the past few mornings listening to podcasts, chatting with my flatmate, and calling some of my friends who are back at home.  Although these first two weeks of lockdown have flown by fast, I feel like the next couple of weeks will feel a little prolonged, and as I’ve mentioned quite a couple of times in my previous blog posts, I truly believe that it is really important to check on your friends and loved ones during a lockdown like this. A simple, “How are you?” could go a long way.