Dear College Parents,
Your child has been home for almost two months from their spring semester of college and this letter portrays a way for you to try and understand what we are feeling during this global pandemic. For us, cutting our semester in half and questioning if we will go back in the fall is extremely hard physically, mentally, and emotionally. While this may seem dramatic, college time is already so limited and for two months of it (and possibly another semester) to be taken away is heartbreaking especially for those whose spring semester would be their last. We want you to know that while we are home, it might not feel the same as though we just came home for Christmas or spring break. It might seem as though we’re dying to get back to school (which in some ways we are) by constantly talking about it or getting frustrated that we’re not there; which doesn’t mean we don’t love being home or that we love you any less. College is a place where we can feel free; where we are constantly surrounded by our friends; where there is always something to do or someone to see or somewhere to be. Transitioning from that lifestyle to living in isolation in a global pandemic was a change that no person could have possibly prepared for or adjusted well to. Especially with school still being in session and classes still being held online, this is a very difficult academic challenge we are facing because online school isn’t just open book tests and googling the answers. Online school means video lectures, zoom calls, research papers, and all sorts of assignments that we could normally handle but seem unmanageable because it is hard to contact professors/classmates; it feels like we’re teaching ourselves the material. While we know you love having us home for the remainder of the academic semester, it’s best to give us some space so we can get our work done and study as much as we need to since we are used to an academic climate (libraries, study rooms, etc.).
Along with this, mental health is something that college students are very aware of and cautious about and it’s something that is deeply affected by this sudden life change. College students are easily susceptible to depression and anxiety and while we are at school it’s easy to feel distracted with friends and extracurriculars. Being in isolation has taken a severe toll on our mental health with the lack of social interactions, the heavy workload of school without the excitement of extracurriculars, and the genuine sadness over a lost semester. This is something we want you to be aware of because it is something that is affecting each one of us silently. This means we may spend more time by ourselves and have less involvement in activities around the house or constantly be on the phone with friends trying to keep some normalcy. Some advice from a college student: if your kid doesn’t have any work to do or any immediate chores they need to do, let them sleep for as long as they want or give them the alone time necessary to keep them somewhat sane. This isn’t a cry for help on behalf of the students, we just wanted to make sure you knew that we love you and we love being home, but this has also taken a massive toll on us. We just want you to understand where we are coming from and how this might affect our actions.
Thank you for everything you do for us, we love you and we appreciate you.
Sincerely,
The Class of ’20, ’21, ’22, ‘23