A few days ago, one of my friends in Shenzhen asked me to help her with an English self-introduction she prepared for an MBA program application. She strikes me as an enterprising and focused person. Still, I was astonished to learn about her new part-time study plan after the pandemic had foiled our plans to meet up since January. 

A year and a half ago, she had a baby. And now, with the pandemic raging around the world, her year-end bonus is expected to be cut greatly as her company, a real estate consultancy firm can’t escape the economic fallout. Right before the pandemic, she and her husband bought a flat near Shenzhen’s pricy Nanshan district, with the mortgage payments taking up a large portion of their income. Their parents from Sichuan province are living with them to take care of the infant. Everything is telling her that this might not be a good time to make such a big makeover to her life. Yet, she decided to take this opportunity now.

Her reasoning is simple: with the sluggish economic situation, it, on the contrary, presents a good time to hone her skills. She is not the only one making such an adventurous decision. Another friend of mine who has 10 years’ working experience and now is working for a tech company also received an offer from a university in Beijing.

According to China’s Ministry of Education, the number of people applying for postgraduate programs set a record 3.4 million in 2020, a 17.6 percent jump from 2019.

Of course, the gloomy job market also contributed to the record-breaking application as a lot of college graduates couldn’t get work.

But the half-glass-full optimism impressed me. Such decisions take more than courage. They require a high degree of self-discipline from adults. So while some people were gloating about the “unexpected” vacations and work-from-home time amid the pandemic, people like my friends sensed opportunity amid the crisis and were prepared to buck the trend.

When we were children, we always dreamed about growing up faster and instantly becoming an adult because we believed that we could have all the freedom that we desired when we turned into grown-ups. Yet when we became adults, we realized there is no absolute freedom. It comes with strings attached. Adults are only adults because they are supposed to make rational and grown-up decisions about their lives.

It is worrying to see that some people in Hong Kong, bothered by a resurgence in the coronavirus, have not made grown-up decisions and are still dwelling on the trivial and attempting to drive a wedge to split the society. The city is not standing in solidarity in this pandemic fight. The immaturity can be seen from the harassment of medical experts who came to help from the Chinese mainland.

These Samaritans came with good intentions. They have risked their own safety and their time with their family safely at home to come to the city when the pandemic was at its height here. The actions of these ill-intentioned troublemakers has tarnished Hong Kong’s hospitable image, and risks earning the city a reputation as an ungrateful brat.

If too many Hong Kong residents continue to indulge in political bickering, the COVID-19 pandemic may not be the worst enemy in sight. We need to start making decisions like a grown-up and bite the bullet during the pandemic. In the meantime, the city must hone its competitiveness as an enterprising adult would do.

Legendary investor Warren Buffett has a famous saying: Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.

When a vaccine is found and the pandemic is over, probably in one or two years, we will see what legacy the pandemic has left us. To some, it may be the belly of a couch potato, or even worse eyesight for playing too many video games. For others, it could be another step up their social ladder.

I hope that Hong Kong emerges from the pandemic as a city reborn after the flames of the last year.

The author is a Hong Kong-based journalist.