We know them well, the high school graduating class of 2020. First, they are the most pitied graduating class (don’t tell the class of 2021 this), losing half of their senior year and their whole first year of university. Now they’ve got one year of university under their belts and are headed into the second year with no real university experience whatsoever. Half of them have never moved out of their parent’s houses and the other half spent 99% of their time holed up in their dorm rooms or student houses. They transitioned from finishing grade 12 online to doing a whole year of university on their laptops, with no concept of what university classes are truly like.
In a normal year, second years would feel much more prepared heading into a new semester, but with in-person classes starting again, the class of 2024 is far from prepared. We should feel confident starting our second year but because of the pandemic, we have no idea what having a real university class load, lectures, or labs are really like. This is a phenomenon that has never been seen before; second years with the same back-to-school anxieties as first years. Except, for second years, there’s no one there to hold your hand because they’re expected to already have a year completed. Thanks to Covid, we second years have no idea what to expect this September. Not only does the class of 2024 not know what in-person classes are like, but a lot of us haven’t even stepped foot on campus or moved out of our parent’s houses yet. This adds a whole new element of stress. Classes coupled with a full workload on top of a new living experience are a lot thrown at someone all at once. The transition into the second year has never been this intense and the class of 2024 is diving into it blindly.
Not only are the class of 2024 experiencing these unique struggles, but we can’t forget all of the things they missed out on. Some students never got the dorm experience and those who did live on campus still had a wildly abnormal year. With Covid precautionary rules, mask mandates, and restrictions on which buildings you were allowed to enter, their first year was far from typical. Another subsection of first years lived in student houses for the first time, completely bypassing the residence experience. These students went straight from living with their parents to living with friends in student housing their first year, which is not the average university transition. Lastly, there are the kids who never even left home and did an entire year of university in their parent’s house. Online school isn’t a foreign concept, people have been doing it for years, but that doesn’t take away from the first-year experience these students missed out on; the moving out, the dining halls, the parties, meeting new friends. Needless to say, the class of 2024 is definitely unique.
The challenges for the class of 2024 will be tough, but if we can survive the first year online in a pandemic, we can survive anything.