I’m a seasoned college student. I have been looking forward to my senior year since I started college three years, and now that it’s here, I can’t help but feel both relieved and saddened. The COVID-19 pandemic changed the college experience not just for me, but for all college students across the world, both new and old. I sincerely believed that my three-year experience dealing with university classes and extracurricular activities would make entering my final fall semester as an undergraduate student an easy one; however, I sit now in my apartment fidgeting with my cellphone among various other objects closest to me, doing anything but what I actually have to do.
My room was impeccably clean, and my laundry was done, folded, and hanged, but the number of assignments and deadlines continued to accumulate with very small dents being made every so often. Today marks the end of the week and I am proud to say that I completed all the work I had to do but at a great mental toll. I thought that in my pre-COVID-19 life, I had a great work ethic that was enviable and now I pat myself on the shoulders for just getting through week one.
What this says is that the pandemic is pushing students like me to master the very complicated skill of self-discipline. After being in isolation for the past almost six months, my mind is very quick to jump from idea to idea, and my skills in academic discipline have effectively been diminished greatly. I still strive for the best grades I can but am a little sluggish when it comes to working for them. I caught some motivation after I completed a few of my homework assignments and realized that the number of things I had to do was ~ gasp ~ going down. The idea that watching a number go down could motivate a person as much as it motivated me this week is actually baffling.
I sat down on my desk on Monday and read through all my syllabi and filled out my weekly planner accordingly. Tuesday I started on my readings and introductory posts. I finally started working on and submitting assignments on Wednesday and Thursday, and now on Friday, I get to reflect on my work ethic and see what I have to improve on before classes actually start becoming more rigorous. Was I continuously working throughout every day? No. I did things that I enjoyed and they kept me
My final reflections on this week are:
- My weekly planner is my savior. Planning the week in advance saved me much stress.
- Practice academic discipline. Not every single moment of every day should be indulgent. Moderation is key to getting through this and every following semester as an undergraduate and graduate student.
- Keep your eyes on the goal. Apply for graduate school, get A’s in my classes, this and my final semester, graduate, and start graduate school. Keep yourself motived to reach every finish line.
- Enjoy this before life changes drastically again.