portrait of majok deng kodd magazine

Spring, normally a time for rebirth, was filled with sickness, isolation, depression and death due to COVID-19. Now, as summer blossoms, new hope stirs as Canada after months of lockdown finally begins the process of re-opening. This series of photos starring Harigovind Sunil captures warmth and happiness as life begins to reclaim a new sense of normalcy. Sunil, an international student who has been unable to see his family in India for months due to the pandemic, reflects on pain in his own life, how it relates to the dark state of the present world and the importance of rediscovering optimism:
Walking home with tear filled eyes, my beloved ones a world away, craving for someone to hold onto, to share pain and happiness with, looking for solutions, struggling to help myself out, I came to a point where I thought nothing good was ever going to happen to me. I used to live with the constant thought of disappearing from the world, which had a beauty that I took too long to acknowledge. There wasn’t a single day which I didn’t cry and hated myself for being me. Sitting in my room all day and night, with no motivation, I felt Iike an angel trapped in a dungeon. I started to live in reminiscences because the present was so bitter and I had no clue about tomorrow. Hiding my pain from everyone, it didn’t take me long to realize that it only made me stronger.
The past few months have brought anguish to the world, seizing thousands upon thousands of precious lives – such an unusual time, stressing the whole human population, a grand series of unfortunate events squishing everything into mud. Seeing everyone suffer breaks my heart like nothing else. With a tiny but strong hope, I have managed to stay for the better. Seeing the world heal by itself inspires me. The sun shines so much brighter after the storm. We all will have to hope and pray for a better tomorrow, doing everything that we can to bring back the joy and peace we all once had in abundance. Sitting at the beach, watching how the big waves come and go…wondering what’s really waiting at the end…even though I don’t know, I like to believe that it is something beautiful bright. That’s the art of living.