I woke up to the ringer of an incoming message from my mother. “Don't worry about the outstanding tuition fees. All these financial strains will pass,” it read. She was the sole provider of the family and she, among the many working-class in Botswana, was still recovering from the cut in salaries from the previous year 2020 due to businesses failing to operate during the Covid-19 virus pandemic for safety measures. Actually, it was just a coincidence that I woke up to her message, I instinctively wake up every morning to entirely close my curtains so that I can lengthen my sleep in my university dorm room in China away from the bright lonesome day. I began following this routine religiously from the onset of the winter holiday; the beginning of 2021 new year; the beginning of yet another Covid-19 virus lockdown in my university campus as a consequence of newly surging cases in China. To my surprise, I drew the curtains open. I must have been subconsciously tired of the despondency. Well, I didn't sleep but I was immediately consumed by thoughts from the previous year's lockdown. As an international student living in the school dormitory, I spent the entire year of 2020 quarantined in the school campus and abiding by my dorm room curfew of nine pm. I might have found myself privileged compared to the majority of the world because I was mostly safe from the Covid-19 virus. Unfortunately, it was at the expense of my freedom. But I understood, everyone lost something or even worse someone to the virus. The whole world mourned. It started to feel unfair when we continued to be quarantined in school despite the nation seemingly having held the virus by its reigns after about five months. I recall taking walks about the university premise border with my friend, looking out from in at the city thriving with life. We saw families taking walks together at dawn, cars and even buses moving up and about, heard raucous noises from the street vendors against the harmonizing voices of the elderly women who sang in the streets opposite our university. The masks across everyone's faces were the only thing to give away that not everything was as it was before the pandemic. This to us felt like segregation, to say the least. Nothing could be done about it because of instructions from the government enforced to make sure that all international students were kept utmost safe. Fortunately, these restrictions loosened a bit around August when Chinese students returned to the university for offline lessons. Occasionally we were allowed to go out for a maximum of four hours. I continued to think, the brightest silver lining was that this horrible situation brought out the humane part in my fellow international student peers. Despite a dent in a lot of our allowances, no one ever lacked, we shared whatever little necessities we had.. In late January when all cities in China went into an emergency lockdown we hardly had enough time and money to buy all necessities before every shop stopped offering their services. Rumours about the lockdown only came as speculation since our city was a bit further away from Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus. Therefore, I soon found myself either making meals with ingredients given to me by my peers or cooking enough food to share with them. This was also true for them. I was most delighted by the fact that I didn't have to ask for anything, it was offered before I even had a chance to. We developed empathy for one another. Even when our university finally found a way to help us buy groceries on our behalf we continued carrying on practicing this act of generosity. I can attest that we truly followed the famous Setswana saying that can be loosely translated as, “A person's children share everything, even if it is as little as the head of a fly.” A good morning text from my boyfriend brought me back to the present. And sadly, instantly I remembered that I had to collect a package consisting of a Christmas card that had been returned to me after I tried sending it to my boyfriend who lives in an adjacent city. He could not receive my gift of endearment. His city had suddenly gone under a strict lockdown. So I immediately got up, showered and had time to meditate, another good consequence of the virus, then headed for parcels and posting shop on my campus. While walking I came to the revelation that the universe gives us a chance to grow and learn from the experience from the previous season to do better in the corresponding season. That is why I immediately decided to start the current university lockdown with a steadfast heart eager to see more goodness in my peers and learn more skills than before. Also, it might take a couple of weeks until I see my boyfriend again, a few months for my family to recover financial and it might take the world a few more years but in the moment, goodness and love conquer the vileness in the world brought about by the Covid-19 virus.