PANDECESSION: Graduating into a post-pandemic world
BY NURLYANA FARRAH SHARY MOHD JIMIE
The Malaysian government has implemented a Movement Control Order (MCO) on the 18th of March after a spike in COVID-19 infections. For health and safety guidelines, resources and information on symptoms and risks, visit the Malaysian Ministry of Health portal or the WHO website. Follow @NewsBFM for the latest developments.
As I’m entering almost half of 2020, every time I scroll through my gallery, I realise how crazy it is that things have changed. I remember New Year’s Eve’s vibe that 2020 will be our year because new decades bring new opportunities. But I spoke too soon.
At the end of February during the third outbreak of COVID-19, I was starting my first work experience–an internship at BFM. Every day I commuted from Shah Alam to TTDI, exchanging trains for 2 hours, while convincing myself that the virus was “just a flu” – an assumption that was familiar back then, especially whenever I saw train and bus passengers wearing masks.
Now here I am, cooped up in my friend’s house for more than a month since the Movement Control Order (MCO). I keep on convincing myself that, one day, I’ll walk out of the door without fear. But once MCO ends, I foresee the world going into a ‘new normal’.
There’ll be a pandecession.
– a hybrid word that I made for pandemic and recession.
Growing up, I was constantly reminded that education is the only way to succeed.
It’s a few steps: You study hard, you get good grades and eventually everything good will fall into place. I have done the first two in hopes that I can chase my dream job in the city of dreams: Kuala Lumpur.
And I was almost there, when I received an email from BFM that I got the internship placement. Finally, I thought to myself that I can make my parents proud because both of them have high hopes for me especially when they never got the chance to graduate from college due to financial circumstances.
And slowly, what seemed like a bright future... feels bleak.
This period made me realise that all of us are vulnerable, no exemptions. Meeting my friends is no longer one text away just like how going home to my parents in Johor Bahru is no longer one bus ticket away. The last time I met my parents was in January and now I don’t even know if I could celebrate Raya with them.
As for my friends, we didn’t even get to say proper goodbyes, because none of us knew this was coming. If anything it teaches me one thing: everything that humans get to do daily is a blessing that shouldn’t be taken for granted. Even a loaf of white bread.
Pandemic and economic hardships are really non-discriminatory. I witnessed people losing their jobs, companies closing down and people asking for money because they can’t afford milk for their children. But, and I don’t mean to be a whiny Gen-Z, it’s hard to not go dystopian when you’re faced with such an uncertain future as you’re about to graduate. Will there be the future that was promised for me?
I decided to speak to a few people to make sense of this experience, to know that I’m not crazy and that my worries are valid.
At the end of February during the third outbreak of COVID-19, I was starting my first working experience ever as an intern at BFM.
I spoke with Aidil, a fellow classmate from my journalism class. He’s stuck on campus and also away from his family in Johor. After 3 years of being in the same class together, I knew that his presence would brighten up a room – but not this time.
[Staying Safe and Staying Sane: On Managing Anxieties and Clinging to Normalcy]
His voice was rather solemn, there’s just a tone in his voice that I know right away, there must be something that is bothering his mind. It turned out that his family’s business is affected by the MCO. His family sells food in a factory’s canteen in Johor and, since MCO was commenced, most factories closed and unfortunately, it includes that factory.
Aidil, a fellow classmate from my journalism class.
“My allowances were cut and I can’t do anything, but to pray that they’re okay”, he said after telling me that his family does not have income and only depends on savings for as long as the factory is closed. At times like these, it’s already torturous for him to not go out at all but thinking about the wellbeing of his family makes his heart ache even more.
“Nobody would want to spend Ramadan away from their family, especially during its first day,” he added. He expressed his envy towards our friends who got to spend MCO and Ramadhan with their families. I feel the same way too; the same reason why sometimes I avoid watching other people’s Instagram stories.
“Nobody would want to spend Ramadan away from their family, especially during its first day.”
We were supposed to be finished with our internship by June but now it’s uncertain due to the MCO; as much as I’m trying to avoid thinking about it, I am reminded of this fact: it’s going to be harder to find a job after this, especially for fresh graduates. Aidil has always been someone who is confident, outspoken and charismatic, I somehow knew that he’ll end up becoming a host or someone who appears on TV but when I asked him about his future plans, his answer shocked me.
[#KeranaCorona: This is Malaysian life under the MCO]
“Just take whatever job opportunity that comes by,” he said while explaining that fresh graduates can’t afford to be picky especially in this economy.
Wow, after 3 years, I never thought that I would be hearing this answer from him. MCO changes people, it changes plans, disrupts dreams – just like how it did to Aidil.
Have an MCO story to share? Let us know.
Dayana with her teammates on the Morning Run.
“Continue doing what you would have otherwise done,
but understand that it’s going to be lot harder than it would have and know that it’s not your fault.”
– Dayana on what to do when you’re graduating university into a recession.
I need to talk to more people, especially those who survived their post-graduation anxieties. I spoke with a colleague, Dayana, a young producer from the Morning Run at BFM. She produces the Morning Brief, and that means she read depressing news constantly when this started. It took a toll on her; though now she seems to be doing better.
MCO is already mentally draining for everyone, but to write and read about it everyday is just a whole new level of messing with your sanity. Something that I got to experience, first-hand.
“There are days where I forget that this is a weird time and this period almost felt natural and that I have been doing this since forever. But then I realised, it’s really not normal”, she said.
But this is not enough, I needed more clarification and reassurance especially from “adults” who have experienced past recessions. I reached out to my former boss at BFM, Ezra Zaid, who – funnily enough– resigned after one week of me being there (I was told I was not the cause of it :) ).
Ezra’s last session on BFM’s Evening Edition with his former team members.
Ezra had plans to take a break. His stint at BFM went on for over eight years, from talking on the radio to producing videos and introducing a new digital dynamic to BFM as the Head of Digital. I had envisioned him like a character of a film.
He certainly left a huge positive impact on BFM, so I thought his departure would only mean one thing: for him to personally and professionally embark on a bigger journey. But I spoke too soon, just two weeks after he left, the world became something else.
Back then I felt like he was someone that I could only dream to become, but with all of this mess that is happening right now, somehow I felt like we were kind of in the same boat, only 17 years apart. Ezra was trying to make sense of it as much as I wanted to, I could tell that.
“Stop thinking about wanting things to go back to normal, to before. It might not happen.”
He told me how like anyone else, the first week was spent watching 8 hours worth of Netflix daily. But 6 weeks in, you cannot keep doing that. "Stop thinking about wanting things to go back to normal, to before. It might not happen."
“You really don’t know what you’re trying to land on,” he added while sharing his post-graduation experience where jobs were difficult to come by even during his time, way before COVID-19. He tried to invest in himself to know more about his strengths, interests and weaknesses. Self discovery is a lifetime quest, even for an experienced, professional adult like Ezra.
There's a severe need to deal with the now, the way that the now deserves. It is time to create ideas and innovation or a good plan B because in my theory, if we don’t plan well enough to face this pandecession, COVID or its financial aftershock will destroy us.
Speaking of financial problems, other than COVID-19’s uncertainties, there is another thing that I can’t control: my money. As a 22-year-old (and the only child) who is graduating from college, I spent my years depending on my parents and I never faced financial problems – because I was theirs.
Apart from watching RUMIT (this is not a plug) and reading financial articles, I haven’t gotten the real first-hand experience of managing my own money. I am still paying my bills using my allowance. This pandemic made me realise that if I am left to survive without my parents’ money, I’ll not make it out of MCO without learning to save money.
I spoke to Nirmala Supramaniam, a financial advisor from AKPK.
Nirmala on RUMIT. Click to watch!
Here’s what I’ve learned: It is important to have ‘other’ emergency savings. ‘Other’ means you should separate your savings – one for your real savings and another one is for emergencies such as unexpected disasters like COVID-19 in which most people are cooped inside their homes without monthly income. It means that you should try to have savings that are worth six months of your income, specially kept for the ‘what-if’ situations.
Maybe it is time for you and me to put a pause on our expensive dreams. With the chaos that’s going on right now, there’s one thing that is just as important as your health: financial stability. You have a wedding planned out? You want to buy a car or a house? You want to go jalan-jalan abroad? Think about it again.
Okay, let’s rewind a little bit, fresh graduates can’t do all of that, because we don’t have an income. Whew, that’s great because we won’t be burdened with financial problems like the older adults... but wait! Not earning anything is a financial problem.
“You have to upskill and upgrade yourself,” she said. Nirmala believes that this is the perfect time to learn and take up new skills as employment will not be the same as it was before COVID-19. Fresh or soon-to-be graduates should take different approaches in using this time to benefit them later in the future. Be it courses or polishing their interests, anything can be used to generate income if one is creative enough.
[Practical tips to manage spending during and after MCO]
I believe what makes COVID-19 extra painful for all of us is the fact that we are caught off guard. Nobody has taught us on what to do if suddenly a virus spreads around the globe and traps us in our homes. While it’s impossible to totally vanquish the possibilities of having a COVID-19 2.0 in the future, but at the very least, it is time to educate ourselves and younger generations on how to face this.
That is when I met Alina Amir (virtually).
She is the CEO of Arus Academy and is a passionate educator. As someone who runs student programs and teaching training, she witnesses that the education sector is changing ever since COVID-19 happened.
“Whatever hurdles that we are facing right now, nobody has faced it before unless they have faced a pandemic.”
I was a nerd during my student days, I was obsessed with chasing A’s because I found my validation in them. But as I spoke to Alina, I realised that I shouldn’t put my self worth over a piece of paper. For her, yes, academic scroll is important, but only to serve as a vehicle for us. It requires our own strength, mindset and passion to fuel the vehicle itself.
It hit me that even until today, our focus is always on something else but not on human values. Dire times like these are where lessons about empathy, compassion and respect come in handy, but we never focused on that before. It took us a coronavirus to make us realise all that and this has to change.
Alina said that this pandemic forces our education system to take a big lesson. Teach young children morals so they grow up not only smart, but also resilient. They should be brave through any crisis that will happen in the future.
When I asked Alina, are my worries warranted? Am I being whiny? She responded with this: “Use this opportunity to truly reflect on your strength and on your goal and think about why you were put in this timeline, and that positive thinking will result in positive results and vice versa.”
“Whatever hurdles that we are facing right now, nobody has faced it before unless they have faced a pandemic,” she reassured me. I learned the greatest lesson of it all – to always forgive yourself.
I don’t feel like a wet blanket anymore. The next time I’m going to talk to Aidil, Ezra and Dayana, I’m going to tell them that it’s okay to feel all sorts of emotions right now because they’re all valid. It’s fine to be scared of the future, but maybe as humans we have been more resilient than what we prefer to credit ourselves with. And maybe, in all those worries, I forgot about this, and spoke too soon.
In this world, everything has expiry dates and when COVID-19 ends, it will ignite the historic mark of a new beginning – full of light and full of life.
This article was co-written with Rahmah Pauzi and Kathleen Kwan. Sabrina Yusof contributed for multimedia production. This article was written one week before the start of the CMCO.
