“My parents, who are doctors, say that the ‘pneumonia’ is more serious than we think”, said my friend, frowning. It was late January, and she in her face mask looked overcautious beside the fashionable ladies in Xinjiekou, who strode swiftly and laughed without shielding their lips.
“我的父母都是医生，他们说‘肺炎’比我们想象的更严重”，我的朋友皱着眉头说道。时值一月下旬，戴着口罩的她在新街口那些大步流星、不掩唇角大笑的时尚女士面前显得谨小慎微。
Her parents were right. In an urgent phone call 1 or 2 days later, my mother told me that the first case of ‘pneumonia’ had emerged in Nanjing; she warned me against the dire consequence of wandering outside. The outbreak makes our world incredibly narrow, I thought, after reluctantly canceling my jazz drum class and plans to hang out.
她的父母是对的。一两天后，妈妈接到紧急电话，告诉我南京出现了首例“肺炎”病例；她警告我不要在外面徘徊的可怕后果。在不情愿地取消了爵士鼓课程并计划出去玩后，我想，疫情的爆发让我们的世界变得异常狭窄。
To a common high school student, the outbreak was not an acute pang, but a dull one. Its devastating impact never directly intruded into my life. Media tied me to the broader world and at the same time placed me in a vacuum. The intense war against the spreading coronavirus comprised quick flashes on the TV screen; the fluctuating patient population reduced to a scarlet number on the home pages of social media, the anxiety of my parents’ colleagues from Wuhan dissolved into chats at the dinner table.
对于一个普通的高中生来说，这次疫情的爆发并不是一场剧烈的痛苦，而是一场平淡的痛苦。它的毁灭性影响从未直接侵入我的生活。媒体将我与更广阔的世界联系在一起，同时又将我置于真空之中。电视屏幕上快速闪现出对抗新冠病毒蔓延的激烈战争；社交媒体主页上不断变化的患者人数减少到猩红色，我父母来自武汉的同事的焦虑融入了餐桌上的聊天。
There were also plenty of news reports, occasionally with rumours sneaked into truthful accounts and considerate suggestion. The virus was playing havoc out there, blurred by distance and lacking a clear view. But in our warm, little world, we did nothing but carry out the heroic mission of keeping ourselves safe.
新闻报道也不少，时不时夹杂着一些谣言，其中也夹杂着真实的叙述和贴心的建议。病毒在那里肆虐，由于距离而变得模糊，视野也缺乏清晰。但在我们温暖的小世界里，我们除了执行保护自己安全的英雄使命之外什么也没做。
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By mid February, school started online. The outbreak has no doubt influenced not only the form, but also the content of our teaching. In English class, we examined several articles on the coronavirus and discussed their limitations. Indeed, in a time when each side is eager to voice its own opinion, critical thinking is needed.
到了二月中旬，学校开始在线上课。毫无疑问，疫情不仅影响了我们的教学形式，也影响了我们的教学内容。在英语课上，我们查阅了几篇有关冠状病毒的文章并讨论了它们的局限性。确实，在各方都渴望表达自己观点的时代，需要批判性思维。
Though the image of our classmates popped up on the screen from time to time, I still missed the eye contact and whispers we enjoyed in an actual classroom. Electronic devices brought us together but made our connection less intimate. We were sitting in our own bubbles facing electronic screens.
虽然屏幕上时不时会出现同学们的身影，但我仍然怀念我们在真实教室里享受的眼神交流和窃窃私语。电子设备让我们聚集在一起，但也让我们的联系变得不那么亲密。我们坐在自己的泡泡里，面对着电子屏幕。
A cleft in the bubble first emerged when our dear AP Psychology teacher bid us an abrupt goodbye. During an ordinary Zoom class, she announced that she could not make it back to China since the border had been closed to foreigners, in fear of imported cases.
当我们亲爱的 AP 心理学老师突然向我们告别时，泡沫中的裂缝首次出现。在普通的 Zoom 课程上，她宣布自己无法返回中国，因为由于担心输入病例，边境已对外国人关闭。
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There have been so many farewells during the outbreak; sad ones, moving ones. I have seen those scenes depicted over and over in the media, but when I was caught up in such a setting I did not know how to react. “That moment, I learned about commoners’ struggle during the outbreak”, one of my classmates later posted on her Wechat moments. The phrase “commoners’ struggle” came upon me with emotional gravity.
疫情期间，有太多的告别；悲伤的，感动的。我在媒体上一遍又一遍地看到这样的场景，但当我陷入这样的场景时，我不知道该如何反应。 “那一刻，我了解到了疫情期间老百姓的挣扎”，我的一位同学后来在她的朋友圈里写道。 “平民斗争”这个词带着沉重的情感涌入我的脑海。
Finally, some substantial impact from the outbreak.
最后，疫情的一些重大影响。
It pierced through the safe, drowsy atmosphere that hung around us. That moment, the impossibility of being detached from the outbreak as an individual became increasingly clear.
它刺破了我们周围安全、昏昏欲睡的气氛。那一刻，作为一个个体，不可能脱离疫情的影响变得越来越明显。
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That was how I realised that we are not passively detached like lonely islands during this epidemic. For young commoners like me, the outbreak curtails our connections with friends and the outdoor life, but at the same time it brings our vision to sophisticated issues that befit adulthood.
这让我意识到，在这次疫情中，我们并不是像孤岛一样被动地疏离。对于像我这样的年轻平民来说，疫情的爆发减少了我们与朋友的联系和户外生活，但同时它也让我们看到了适合成年的复杂问题。
To me, the outbreak inspires me to consider the fallibility of media representation. To a junior at my school, the innovative medical research done during the outbreak strengthens his determination to be a researcher. To some of my peers, who have been working with charity organisations, the stressful workload is shaping them into capable prospective social workers.
对我来说，这次疫情的爆发促使我思考媒体报道的错误性。对于我校一名大三学生来说，疫情期间所做的创新医学研究坚定了他当一名研究员的决心。对于我的一些一直在慈善组织工作的同龄人来说，压力很大的工作量正在将他们塑造成有能力的未来社会工作者。
During the outbreak, we may have lost our direction, but we are regaining it with realisation, and essentially, we grow.
疫情期间，我们可能迷失了方向，但我们正在清醒地找回方向，本质上，我们在成长。
