E-Paper
Offline vs online: Tyesha Kohli
After a year of home-schooling, a student writes about how she can’t wait to get back real time classroom learning
In March 2020, we saw the whole world slowly come to a standstill. One day, I was gearing up to move to Boston, Massachusetts, to finally be at my dream school, Berklee School of Music, and the next day, every country had to shut borders. The “new normal” took over life plans and it became quite hard to even begin looking for the silver lining. After waiting for months and momentarily giving up my dream, we heard that the school’s going completely online for a while and this may be my last chance to enroll! I thought about every single possibility and how they will affect my life. But, through all of that, there was always this one voice at the back of my head that I couldn’t let go of it. And, as a 25-year-old professional singer-songwriter, this felt like the natural next step. So, I began my classes in September 2020!
Sing a different tune
The first week was a rollercoaster, but the school was patient and understanding. Especially in scheduling classes, keeping in mind the multiple time zones. The first semester had classes starting at 1 am, but in my second semester, with daylight because everything is an hour earlier for me. It’s easier but I can’t wake up in the mornings anymore!
Since music’s a practical subject of learning, we often feel like we’re missing out on stuff by not being physically present there, there’s definitely a sense of feeling absent even though we’re officially enrolled.
Shift gears
Though it’s all happening online, we’ve not only received information and knowledge but also emotional support from the faculty. Whatever reservations I had about starting college online, got resolved with the help of the considerate and thorough planning. They have student surveys and make active decisions to make students feel better. They also have office hours for us set up at ungodly hours for them.
I thought it would be scary and everything would be piled up on me. The workload is still there but it’s more than what I expected to be in a positive way.
After my first semester, the actual experience of being in college and university is gradually unfolding – I’m joining clubs and meetings. I’m getting to know about how things work there.
Regardless of me being here, I’m still connecting with people via social media and potentially even working with them. It can be a little difficult, but the plus point is that meeting someone on screen takes away from the nervousness that’s there when meeting someone in person.
I was supposed to go in May 2021, but I decided against it because I will still be in a room and barely be able to attend classes. The college is opening properly in September, so I’m probably going! “Whatever’s meant to be, will be”, as my mom often says. After a series of unfavourable events and plain despair, I unexpectedly found my silver lining in an unlikely scenario and took a chance, I hope you do the same for your dreams!
Tyesha Kohli is a 25-year-old singer-songwriter from Delhi-NCR, who is a part of multiple ensembles, including Tyesha Kohli Collective
As told to Karishma Kuenzang
Follow @kkuenzang on Twitter and Instagram
From HT Brunch, March 28, 2021
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