A lot has happened since the pandemic started way back in March. Our academic and social lives were drastically impacted by our return home, considering how most of us spent the last year and a half stewing in our rooms. I know that it’ll be difficult to adjust to being on campus again, but at the same time, it can be a great experience if we want it to be.
So much has changed since I was last taking classes on campus. Shuffled e-board positions, classes passed, friendships made and lost. I can say definitively that I am not the same person I was when the pandemic started and changed everything. The idea of needing to get out of my room and walk to a classroom to actually pay attention to my professor is almost surreal. It kinda feels disingenuous to be writing this column; in my heart, I’m a freshman again, wondering ‘What will school be like?’ During sophomore year, I was able to find a balance between work, clubs, friends, etc., but I’m not sure if I want the same things anymore.
Ongoing uncertainty about school policies and the status of different COVID-19 strains makes the return to campus even more stressful. It’s unclear whether another strain could force everyone to return home for a second time, throwing a wrench in the plans of anyone who actually wants to go to college in-person. Of course, it wouldn’t be anyone’s fault if this were to happen, but it would be a travesty all the same.
Yet despite all this, the biggest problem with this stressful return isn’t the inevitable challenges that we’ll face, but instead the worry associated with it. The best thing that we can do is to prepare for anything that might happen, and then simply let it be. We can gain nothing by agonizing over how we’re going to be spending our time except additional stress, so I’d advise everyone to relax as best you can. Our professors, friends, and school administrators are all feeling the same thing we are, and as long as we are understanding of them, they will be understanding of us.
Laying my fears aside, I have nothing but excitement and optimism for this upcoming semester. There’s going to be plenty of fun things to do on campus, and I can’t wait to involve myself again. From Greek life to clubs to chatting with a professor after a class is over, there’s a lot to be gained from being in person again, and I plan on taking advantage of all of it. There’s a certain empathetic quality of conversation that you miss out on when talking to people on Zoom, over the phone, or texting, and it’ll be great to finally get that back.
If I had to pick one word to define my hopes for the fall, it’d be recovery. We need to make up for all the time that we’ve lost. I hope that any moment spent not paying attention in Zoom University, or any time we would have joined a club or made a friend that was lost can be made up now. No doubt it’s going to be a crazy, chaotic mess, with thousands of bored students craving attention from one another, but that’s part of the fun of being on campus anyways. As long as we’re careful and don’t go jumping in any rivers, I think we’ll all have a great time.
Senioritis is an Opinion column written by one or two Stevens student(s) in their last year of study to discuss life experiences during their final year at Stevens, and other related subject matter.
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