When you start your college journey, you wait till the day you make it to senior year. It’s the icing on the cake of your college experience. Senior year is not easy, but it’s exciting, it has a sense of completion to it, that feeling of ‘yes I did it, I made it to the end!’. You’ve grown, made lifelong friendships and taken in all that college has to offer. While we may not be particularly excited to step out into the world, being a senior is amazing.
Being a senior right now is a little different just like a lot of things. When the world went crazy for the class 2020 not having a graduation, the class of 2021 thanked our stars we were one year behind. However, when the world took a crazy turn for the unexpected little did we know we may potentially be missing out on our entire senior year experience. Colleges announced remote learning, campus being closed and all the added safety measures we had to take to be there. The realisation hit that senior year will not be the same. All those things we wanted to do one last time may not happen and we may never see some people again. While everyone is getting used to remote learning, it will never be the same as being in a class with your friends. Brandeis is not the same without all of its students and the hustle of a fall semester. Currently doing the semester remotely from India feels weird and strange and I don’t think I will ever get used to this feeling. A lot of my friends are doing remote learning from all over the world and as we gear up to graduate, we are less prepared than ever.
The beginning of the semester was hard and the ‘fear of missing out’ was a huge thing. As things got busy and the work picked up I learned the coping mechanism that worked for me. These are some of the things. You are not alone and we all need a little reassurance right now. No plans worked out for anyone in 2020 and the entire world has switched gears, we will come out of this stronger. Technology is our best friend right now, make use of it! Zoom dates, group catch up, girls wine night is all possible virtually and it is up to us to make the most of it. Loneliness is something everyone is experiencing, no matter what their social media says. Reach out to friends you haven’t seen in a while, check in on people, they will appreciate this more than ever and chances are they are probably free. While the weather is nice in the beginning of fall, social distanced outside catch ups are possible, take the initiative.
Classes and clubs and campus are all trying to adjust to the new normal and the faster we accept that and embrace the change, the less weird it feels. Yes I lost senior year, but I didn’t lose my friends and the people that make the year. The most important thing right now is gratitude and looking at the silver linings when a lot of things are going wrong in the world. Being thankful and being kind and being in check with our mental health is what will help us get through this!