“It’s the Spring of 2020, more precisely 13.4. It has been a few weeks since Uusimaa region got restricted from the rest of the Finland due to high rise on the COVID-19 cases. Soon I would’ve been on Wappurundi with my best NESU-friends and having the time of my life. Well, now I haven’t seen anyone but my mom, dad and brother for 3 weeks, and I’ve been using our parents’ living room as a study space, a workout space, a napping space, a movie theatre and a restaurant to mention a few. Sure, the things could be a lot worse, but it still is quite weird to live in a world that has suddenly kind of stopped. And what do people want to know about, how should I inform them?
As my area of responsibility has been communications for the past year it is suddenly very strange to produce any information about the future events. Everything is unclear and uncertain, the events of NESU organisations have been cancelled and my “Important events in the future”-Instagram stories are empty. What to communicate? What should the students of Business Schools’ know right now? As I am looking through different organisations’ information channels, I see a familiar view – cancelled.”
In a time like this, it’s extremely important to maintain the connection with others one way or another. I’ve been glad to see NESU-TuKY arranging a wappu-themed sitzparty via Zoom (we had our overalls on for sure!). I was happy to arrange a big game night with NESU-Optimi’s Julius Gran via Zoom. I took part to FOMO-sitzparty that was made possible by Pyry Mustajärvi from NESU-Waasa and Joel Holappa from NESU-SHS. In these kind of events we shared our thoughts and had great laughs together with the attendees with each of us sitting at home. It was clear to see what every attendee of those events needed: connection.
Connection is something more than communicating and sharing information: it is something that brings us together and gives us a feeling of belonging. It is something that is natural for humans to seek and something that keeps us going. For me, the phase of COVID-19 in the Spring of 2020 showed, that in NESU, you are never truly alone. Now that I’m writing this, the future is still uncertain on the pandemic situation, but I’m sure that we’ll get through this. I want to say that it’s perfectly normal to feel different emotions and a lack of motivation. Don’t get left alone with your thoughts; let’s stick together, NESUits!