The Write Idea

  Hello Fellow Writers, Recently I have been thinking about the issue of dependency in teaching and learning contexts and, to talk about this, I need to begin by sharing a story about my own learning experience this year. At the start of the lockdown - when we weren’t allowed to leave our houses to go for a walk or a run - I, like many others, went searching online for an exercise class I could follow and I, like many MANY others, found the internet sensation Yoga with Adriene . It had been more than 10 years since I took a yoga class, so I really was starting from scratch, but it was exactly what I was looking for – a structured 30 day programme to help me build strength and flexibility and, honestly, to keep me sane during these crazy times. Right away I resonated with Adriene’s informal style, warm personality, and her catch phrase ‘find what feels good’ – a sentiment similar to what I often say in writing workshops; find your own style as a writer. Those early weeks of y...

It has been just over two months since the lock down commenced, and I can definitely say some days are better than others. Initially, I found myself quite resistant to what was happening around me and soon realized it was because it happen so abruptly. There was no real preparation period or time to bid the “old normal” farewell. So I found myself taking a few weeks to take everything in and to find my feet again. The most challenging thing for me was finding my rhythm, especially in the comfort of my home. Being a postgraduate student that works predominantly in a laboratory, the idea of working from home was  completely new for me. The lack of pressure, deadlines and physically going to the lab/campus completely threw me off my usual productive routine. I was like a deer in headlights. Sure enough the writing lab newsletters came to my rescue and helped me find my rhythm of working from home.  The useful tips of finding my rhythm and things I could do to get the writing “bal...

During this lockdown, we have all experienced anxiety and stress at various degrees, mainly because of the uncertainty that surrounds us and the fear of the unknown, due to the Covid-19 epidemic.  Our daily pattern resembles that of a nonmonotonic graph. On some days we are very productive, our spirits are high, energy is on point and we get things done. Other days are just dull, energies are low, and we can barely even get through the introduction of an article. But I think there is no more comforting feeling than knowing that we are all in the same boat. We are all frustrated by the thought of how much time has gone to waste, precious time that we could have used to maybe optimize the first objective of our projects. We know we can never get this time back, so the best we can do is maximize on productive days, because there is no telling when that graph is going to start decreasing again.  I think the best thing we can do for ourselves right now is to celebrate the little “v...

It is almost nine weeks since the South African national lockdown was announced on the 26 th of March 2020. When the announcement was made that day, none of us were fully prepared for it, nor anticipated what was to come. Personally, I was in the middle of my lab work and had planned to get a good deal of work done before June. I remember cryo-freezing my cell cultures and packing away my reagents with the hope that soon, the ‘normal’ will resume. My last face-to-face conversation with my supervisor was filled with positive plans on what we will do as soon as the lockdown lifts. I was certain that it would only be for 21 days. But as I watched the statistics, the infection rate rising, and the leadership of the country put their heads together for solutions, I soon realised that we are truly living in unpreceded times and nothing is certain. Little scientific data is available on COVID-19, so we develop knowledge on it day by day. As I slowly tried to adjust to my new normal of writin...