As a senior in college, I have some experience under my belt dealing with COVID-19 rules and regulations. But that experience colored my college career, perhaps forever. No matter what year college students are in right now, they have all been affected by this pandemic.
It’s funny to look back on the days when almost everything was on a Zoom call and our food was in pre-packaged containers, but I feel like I lost a crucial part of my college life. I never had an orientation where nervous freshmen gathered on the grass to participate in group activities that made you extremely uncomfortable and sweaty. I didn’t get to walk around in the hockey arena as a sea of people weaved around countless tables promoting their clubs. Nor did I even finish my first semester of college AT the college – I went home early to finish online and put up with the stresses of being caged in my room.
There is a part of me that is grateful though, because I didn’t have to graduate as the world stopped turning in March of 2020. Many students did, unsure of how they would be able to support themselves for the first time as companies went remote, or shut down altogether. Others had to continue living with their parents as prices soared, or work in a job that wasn’t connected to the thousands of dollars spent on a college education.
All in all, there were ups and downs to college life in a pandemic, but one thing is clear. COVID-19 changed the world, affecting all of the humans on Earth, and we are living in a post-pandemic world that is still healing. I could say “Congratulations, you lived through a historic event!” – but is it really a congratulations? Or should we instead say “I’m sorry,” because your worldview has been irrevocably changed due to a virus?