Seungheun (Sam) Lee
Self-isolation of 14 weeks. It would be a lie to say that staying in my room for 98 days straight was easy. I could’ve spent these 14 weeks complaining and worrying, but I wanted to make the best out of it. This is why I was never a fan of the phrase ‘social distancing’; to protect ourselves from the virus, we needed to try to keep a physical distance with each other as much as possible. But I believed that socially, we needed to get closer, especially during this challenging period of time; interacting with each other constantly while always trying to express yourself. This was why I decided to start my own blog during quarantine. As a person who wishes to become a journalist in the future, I believe in the power of words; I was happy to provide myself with an opportunity during quarantine to put this belief of mine into action.
Rather than listing all the reasons why I decided to make my own political blog, I would like to share a little story that explains the exact reason why I challenged myself during quarantine to start a completely new activity. When there was the Great Plague spread in the UK, Isaac Newton – a student studying in Cambridge University at that time – went back to his childhood home Woolsthorpe and self-isolated himself there from the summer of 1665 until the spring of 1667. However, this challenging period of time surprisingly was when Newton met his peak of scientific and mathematical discoveries. In 1666, Isaac Newton made revolutionary inventions and discoveries in calculus, motion, optics and gravitation – including the well-known ‘law of universal gravitation’. This year, often referred to as Newton’s ‘Year of Wonders’ or in Latin ’Annus Mirabilis’, was when Newton truly thrived. Later on, reflecting on this time of self-quarantine, Newton stressed that these enforced absences were the most intellectually fruitful period of time of his whole life; Newton wrote “For in those days I was in the prime of my age for invention and minded Mathematics and Philosophy more than at any time since”.
As Newton’s story here tells us, it is up to us how we use the time and opportunity given to us. Newton taught me that one of the greatest scientific discoveries came out during quarantine. I knew that I probably won’t be able to make revolutionary discoveries like Newton did during self-isolation, but I decided to make the best out of it – making it my own Annus Mirabilis. For me, that was starting my own political blog “from ? to !”.
The world after Covid-19 is getting closer and closer every day. No one knows if we’ll go back to the life before the coronavirus, or if we’ll need to adapt to a new normal forever. But what we do know is that we can choose what to get out of the struggles we went through during this global pandemic. We can continue to challenge ourselves with new activities. We can continue to find a way to express ourselves and connect with others. Then we won’t need another quarantine order to make our own Annus Mirabilis.
Find my blog here: https://samuellee622.wixsite.com/questioneveryday
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