"Bomb!". ‘’Hurraaaaaay!!’’. The cry echoed through the air as we jubilantly tossed handfuls of confetti into the sky.

After three years of enduring a nightmare, we, the students, have finally arrived at a day that saw the liberation from the shackles of masks, green-code checks, and ceaseless COVID tests at school. After 3 years of living ‘innormally’, we somehow forgot how to live ‘normally’.

For the first time, we found amusement in glimpsing one another's unmasked faces. Unprecedentedly, The office of the mental health mentor has now become one of the busiest spots on campus. Numerous students reported a peculiar feeling as if the mask had become one of their organs, leaving them uncomfortable and anxious without it.

These unforgettable three years brought about a profound change in schools in China. During the days of 2023, we become so used to hearing the sound of Confetti and party music. "I live each day as if it was my last," one student shared. "After going through all these things, I've learned not to believe in tomorrow. That's why we now celebrate every student's birthday and every event that has a bit of meaning to us, a tradition that didn't exist before or during the pandemic. It's unbelievable how this unspoken agreement came to be." We no longer wish to let any opportunity of connecting with others slip away, rather we crave to revel in the present.

The haunting memories of quarantine had left us with a depletion of sense of security. "We simply want to enjoy every moment that we are physically accessible, that’s it. The school has become the place, in which we, the hurt, could be together and warm each other."