Aruzhan Yussup
Bocconi
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18 years old
Astana, Kazakhstan
How has your everyday-life changed? What do you do to fulfill your day?
Being one of the people who crave social interaction, I had to take some time to come to terms with the fact that I would now have to spend most of my time alone. This turned out to be an absolute roller-coaster of emotions. Occasionally, it would be unbearably boring, occasionally I would feel completely crushed, and the other days I would discover things I would have not discovered otherwise. I have no one to impress with my “master chef” cooking, working out, or yoga, and frankly speaking, I did everything you would see people recommend - and would still feel bored. And then one day, I woke up, and switched the perspective - I got used to my new life, and surprisingly, I started to enjoy it. Left alone with my thoughts, I started trying to work towards becoming a person I would never be bored around. After ridiculous dozens of attempts to take another yoga position, I - an absolute mashed potato - would start noticing what is close to a split, and I am now even closer. My sketchbook has started filling up with new doodles, and then sketches, finishing with almost ready paintings (if you can call them that). I rewatch all the old movies I loved so much and rediscover myself again through lost hobbies. Moreover, being stuck in one of the university's residences, I start forming new connections - meeting amazing people from all around the world who I have lived next to for the past months and have weirdly enough - never met. To sum up I still occasionally feel unbearably bored, sometimes I feel more alone than I would want to be; and yet coming out of this quarantine I would hopefully be a slightly different person, changed slightly for the better.
Your work is built on creativity. While we’re all in quarantine, what is your solution to keep on being creative? Where do you find your inspiration in this moment?
Since everything around us is put on pause, I think it’s a great opportunity to take a step back and observe things we would usually take for granted more closely - the nature around us, simple household objects, or even members of your family - and take inspiration from them, lashing it out in the most various forms of art! Finally, I would advise taking a deeper look at something much closer ourselves. To be able to listen to what we have to say is often the greatest source of creativity for the most! Left alone with our thoughts during such a difficult period, I find it useful to lay everything going through my head out in different forms of art - let it be writing, painting, or through music.
What is your biggest fear right now?
I am afraid that in the near future, the situation will hardly get better; that ‘normal’ might not be as soon as we hope for it to be. The more time it takes for the health organizations to develop any sort of medication or the vaccine, the more lives the virus is taking, and all of us have loved ones under the category of risk. Even the mere thought of losing someone close to me to the virus is giving me shivers, and I can only fear to imagine what those who have, are going through. Ultimately, just like the others, I also fear the drastic consequences this outbreak would have on the worldwide economy, especially that of developing states such as my own - Kazakhstan. In places where people’s jobs and income depend on travel, tourism, small businesses, etc, truly dark times might soon arrive. I am also afraid that the longer it would take for the situation to normalize, and the longer we’d have to keep up with social distancing, the more difficult it would be for people to start openly interacting again, even once all of this is over. I fear the times where people would not feel safe or comfortable hugging on the streets or displaying affection. I fear the times where what was so normal before would cease to exist completely.
What will you do once all of this is over?
As basic as it sounds, I would go for a coffee. I would take all my joy in opening the door of my favorite coffee place to greet the workers with a friendly “Ciao”, even if it would be through a mask. I might spend some extra time observing every item on the menu this time, God knows I might have forgotten it; and you would need someone to take me away from the pastry section until I would single-handedly fulfill daily orders. Standing in the queue would weirdly enough, feel great, and I would right now kill for the loud background noise of people’s chatter. Finally, some of my friends might arrive, and they will be lucky if my hug will not squeeze them to death.