A young woman from Romania discusses her personal experience of the pandemic

Hi. Welcome. Welcome, Diana. Um, so today we are chatting about about, uh uh, the pandemic impact on youth in Europe

And I would like to ask you some questions. First of all, what is your name and where do you come from? Um, hi. I'm Diana, and I come from Romania

Ok, um, I would like to ask you, uh, how this pandemic changed your life. All right, well, currently, I am 22 years old. I had just turned 20 when the pandemic hit

It was at the time I was returning from an Erasmus, uh, project study in Portugal. I was there for one semester, and right as I returned to Romania to continue my studies, the pandemic hit and everything had to be moved online. So my this is like my the overview of my situation

I'm still a student for my master's degree. So I would say the pandemic has first of all affected the education opportunities I had because in the beginning, of course, the school systems were not prepared anywhere to take in to have this sudden move online. And there were a lot of confusion about how things should be handled

How examinations should be held. And there were a lot of, uh, certain decisions. And no one really knew what was gonna happen

How we should prepare for our exams will be will be called in person. Will the exam be written? Will it be Speak spoken? We, uh it was a lot of stress for us as students. This sudden move, I would say that was the hardest semester I had to go through

Thankfully, it was not my first year of university. So I had a friend group at school to support me. That was formed in the normal period

Uh, another way that it has affected my education. I had already participated in competition to win eras. Another Erasmus in Cyprus for the autumn of 2020

Was it nice talking? So the pandemic hit in the spring, and in the autumn, I was supposed to go to Cyprus. A lot of people that year decided to abandon their Erasmus and wait a year to see how it goes for me. I made the decision to go, and I also made the decision because Cyprus was at the time a safe place to be

Even though we didn't know how things were going to evolve in Cyprus. There were zero cases, so I decided to go. But I do believe that my experience would have been very different

Were it not for the pandemic during that time. And, yeah, how so You were talking about, um, the impact on your education about the stress in, uh uh, doing your study. And, uh, what about, um, your habits, your daily life? How How does it change? It's something was happening or Yeah, So about my daily life, uh, it was a hard time not being able to meet with my mutual friends

So if we don't even live close by together, we couldn't go out and meet, like, Not for the, Let's say, walk around the block. Um, and also my birthday was in quarantine. So my birthday, instead of being a nice outing with my friends, was held on zoom

So we had the zoom party for me for that birthday. Um, and in my day to day life, I would say it's for it's more applicable now because for I started my master's and I started my master's Well, everything is still online, so I didn't get to meet my classmates or my teachers this time around. So it was very difficult trying to communicate for group projects with people I have not yet met in person

That's true. So it affects a lot your working environment that you study working environment and new relationships. Group building

Yeah, that's that's a very important issue. And so how do you feel with that right now? The pandemic And, uh, those changes, What is your sensation Right now? I am happy that things at least settled a bit. And there is not that there is a little bit less confusion on what we're dealing with with

It's more clear to us, So the future is still uncertain. I think it will remain so, but at least it's a bit. You can start planning, maybe for the for the future

And also, I'm happy. A lot of things are possible again, like going out and meeting with friends, be it with masks or not. Um, as well as getting to leave on other opportunities to study abroad or to join projects like the one we're currently having

No, it's sounds nice. Yeah, I'm feeling more and more better. I'm feeling like I'm more accepting and calm

I'm happy we get to have the opportunities we have and, you know, maybe treasure it a bit more because I saw what it was like to be deprived of them. Yes, that's still true. Thank you

Thank you, Diana. And if you want to you Oh, I think that's it. OK, so thank you, Diana

Thanks a lot..