As I wake up to the routine knock that indicates my quarantine breakfast is delivered for the day, I am awakened to my memories of March last year when over 100 countries across the globe instituted full or partial lockdown. A year which required some of us with relative privilege to suddenly and unexpectedly explore a newly discovered sense of free time on our hands.

WIth everyday movement significantly reduced, plans were cancelled and interactions translated to a virtual format, it was as though time was at a standstill and my life had taken a pause for the foreseeable future. As self help guides to productivity engulfed social media, I was pressured by this feeling of not doing enough with my time. I was driven to define my success by setting goals, accomplishing something useful and diving into DIY projects with a flickering hope that time would soon pass and the world would resume to normal.

Over this past year, however, my antagonistic relationship with time has metamorphosed. I have consciously attempted to redefine this era as not one of stagnation but perhaps an opportunity to (un)learn, revitalise- and abandon the monotony of rigid routine. I have begun to notice something unique and special in the way in which we have transitioned and navigated through the unpredictability of the new normal. Time has become much more than something that passes between moments but something that can be harnessed and reset.

In retrospect, time has not gotten lost or stopped during the pandemic. Rather, it has begun anew and prompted us on a quest to find our place, experiment and connect with ourselves and with those around us.

NYU Abu Dhabi students shared stories of how they had transformed time into productive forms and their perception of it had also changed over the summer.

“[Crocheting] was a way to come together… We’d usually go in the winter to visit our family friends in New Hampshire and [one visit] I remember sitting on the couch near the fire as my friend’s mom taught me and [my sister] how to crochet. I never really picked it up after but I tried to relearn it last summer… It was an excuse to sit and do nothing but also a way to hang out and sit with my family and just talk. It makes me feel like I’m doing something productive and the time I’m doing has something to show for it,” said Sophie Bass, Class of 2024. “[Especially during] the pandemic, it was definitely relaxing … it ma[de] me feel accomplished [as] you can see the progress really easily [but] sadly once in person classes start it will take a pause.”

For Bass, crocheting became more than a mere hobby as it was reminiscent of trips she took with her family friends, and it helped her reconnect with loved ones she could not meet this year. She explained that channelizing her spare time to work on her passion was not only cathartic but also a marker of growth and personal success.

Isha Gandham, Class of 2024, standing next to her aunt after they went zip lining in Texas, United States. Photo courtesy of Isha Gandham.

“I really wanted to go back home to India but [with the] flight bans, I really needed a place to stay. My parents spontaneously said ‘If not family back home at least visit family somewhere.’ Initially, I was anxious and I was not very sure, but I visited the US after 15 years and I got time to bond with [my extended] family. I was in Houston and on the weekends we would go to Austin, hike, [and] living in the suburbs I would even bike around to cafes… it was all very movie-like! I also got to go to flea markets with antique goods and as I was trying to find tiny bits of home I found these cute postcards that made it to my dorm room [at NYUAD] ... surprisingly they felt like something close to home.”

Gandham noted how even though it was far from what she would have anticipated a week before leaving Abu Dhabi, it was an exciting journey that gave her cherished moments of solitude as well as time with her family as she biked around to explore new and unfamiliar sociocultural landscapes.

María Emilia Baca along with other members of the Class of 2024 are photographed during their trip to the desert. Photo courtesy of Saruul Zorigt.

“I missed my high school graduation which they organized a year after we [left] high school as I was completing my summer course so I couldn't be there to attend it. My [graduation] was a big milestone for me ... especially as we start our adult lives … and I was disappointed I couldn't go back home. I guess I got to feel more at home here with people from university as I grew closer to them over time as we went [on] a trip to the desert for instance. The pandemic has pushed me to not think about what is going to be next for me, but to do one thing at a time,” shared María Emilia Baca, Class of 2024. “As everything suddenly changed I’ve learned to not [be concerned about] what I’m missing out on but to live more in the moment … to be more in the present [with who] I’m with [at the time] and what I could be doing right now.”

Although Baca was unable to celebrate her high school graduation in person and gain closure from her past 14 years as a student, she shared her takeaways on understanding how to cope with and live in the present. Sharing a concern similar to Gandham regarding flight bans, she noted the transition of home from a place to one that refers to people and time. For home to simply refer to a moment of warmth and a time of building affectionate relationships.

Photo Courtesy of Jun Ming Ooi, Class of 2024. Ooi photographed Times Square, New York during a visit to his sister.

“Arriving in New York after more than one and a half years of lockdowns and restrictions in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi, it was as if the pandemic never existed. Walking around the city without masks, eating in a restaurant, travelling anywhere without having to think of restrictions — it was these little luxuries that the pandemic took from us that I missed the most. It gave me hope that a post pandemic life exists, and I'm living in it right now. It truly felt like my time in New York was a little bubble in space where the pandemic paused, if only just for a bit,” said Jun Ming Ooi, class of 2024. “Now back on campus in Abu Dhabi, I'm reminded that the pandemic is still very much a real thing.”

Acknowledging his privilege to travel to New York and meet his sister, Ooi had come to accept and embrace this new normal and imagine a future from here on.

Although the pandemic has marked a global crisis and a disorienting time of loss, for many, it has also opened new ways to redefine personal and communal growth. It has provided students with time to forge new narratives and find fulfillment outside the monotony of their routines as they reorient their focus to self care and finding relationships founded on shared passions and love. This past summer, NYUAD students have embraced their vulnerability and shown strength as they regained hope and learned how to find comfort when time seemed still, plans fell apart and all the while distanced from their homes. With time, we are becoming brave and willing to live in the unknown.