The roller-coaster of events students have been taken on.

Board exams for classes X and XII were initially set to take place in November last year. However, due to concern for students that haven’t been able to finish covering the syllabus, the exams were postponed to February 14, 2022.

For most, this information was equivalent to music to their ears as it meant more time to study.

Personally, I was rather peeved by the decision and would have preferred the exams to have been conducted at the earliest possible date– in fact, I had spent almost a week moping around due to my annoyance.

However, a month before we were set to appear for exams, Thimphu experienced another lockdown.

Then, a couple weeks later, news regarding containment had come out due to the current situation owing to COVID.

This had positively infuriated me.

I didn’t understand it at all. Why would we have to live in schools that were unable to house students and teachers? We wouldn’t have beds or showers or heating facilities.

But I decided that since I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it, I might as well regard it as a new experience. Thus, I had steeled my resolve and started packing.

Soon after, we were informed that we might not go into containment mode after all and were told to wait until January 30th for the final decision.

But on January 30th we were still left in the dark with no news whatsoever.

Most, including myself, took this as a sign that containment might not be happening.

Not long after, it was announced that the board exams would be postponed to January 28th, 2022.

This hadn’t come as much of a shock but instead had caused a shift in the attitude of students.

Since the exams keep getting pushed back students are slowly being stripped of the motivation to study and work hard for a prolonged period of time.

It is not easy to trudge forward without guarantee of our efforts coming to fruition. However that is exactly what is expected of us.

The last few months have been a roller-coaster in terms of the up-and-down of both events and feelings.

The strive I felt a mere month ago has withered and I find myself becoming more and more cynical with each twist and turn this roller-coaster has subjected me to.

Be that as it may, with the lockdown extended by three more days, the only thing I can do is hold on for dear life as I anticipate the ending that awaits me and my fellow students.