A worldwide pandemic threw everyone across the United States a curveball this past week. I, among thousands of other college students, was told to pack up my stuff and go home to self-quarantine and wait out a pandemic that is sweeping across the world. Many colleges have moved online for the remainder of the semester, but not all. I am currently among the few still waiting for the email saying I will not be able to return to Saint Michael’s campus until August. Many students are united in feeling sad and mourning the abrupt “end” to the semester. So, let’s talk about it!
There are a range of emotions students are feeling due to COVID-19 and none of them are happy. A lot of people are anxious that they are going to get coronavirus or that someone they care about will get it. This anxiety rises when the people we love have immunodeficiencies or are elderly. Many are frustrated that they are missing events such as graduation or prom, and in the grand scheme of things these frustrations may seem trivial, but everyone is entitled to mourning the retraction of these milestones. But here’s the interesting thing about all of these emotions: they are coming up because we are being forced to deviate from the norm, and it makes us uncomfortable. But isn’t it the unexplored that makes life an adventure?
Being a college freshman, “cheated” out of my full first-year-of-college experience, and experiencing the United States’ response to a full-fledged pandemic is not what I was expecting to happen this semester. I am sure that is a statement with which many can identify. The anxiety and fear that comes with the spread of coronavirus is something everyone is acknowledging, but I want to acknowledge how fascinating it is to see our global community in action in the midst of all this uncertainty. COVID-19 will be a story I will tell my children and my grandchildren in the decades to come because of how it brought out the best in people during a time when we were especially divided. And though I am devastated that my friends and I cannot see each other in person for the next month (at least), I find comfort in the community that is being built by everyone around the world. Videos are going viral of entire neighborhoods in Italy singing together out their windows, filling the empty streets with music. People are volunteering to deliver lunches to families or students that relied on schools that are now closed. Hundreds and hundreds of stories are popping up about how neighbors are looking out for one another or volunteering to help those who are in need. Just the other day, I was walking in my neighborhood and almost every other house had chalk drawings in the driveway. I took a photo of writing in a driveway done in the crooked handwriting of a young child, and it said Think of the positive in alternating blue and pink chalk. Children, who adults often underestimate in their capability to understand difficult situations, took time out of their day to spread a little bit of sunshine on the neighborhood.
For a long time we have taken for granted our ability to go outside, socialize, and be close to the people that we love. I know I have grown to itch for the day that it is safe to be close to each other again, and what a wondrous day that will be. I believe that communities will become stronger by the end of this virus, no matter how long that takes. People will step outside and have something in common with every single person around them; we got through this pandemic together.