The COVID-19 pandemic put everyone’s life on pause for years. As we have officially made it out of the pandemic phase, restrictions have been lifted and “normalcy” has returned in our daily life…or has it?
Honestly, I can hardly remember life before the pandemic swept the nation and I can tell many can relate. For instance, even though masks are no longer required, it’s fairly obvious it has become a habit for others to wear as I continue to see stores and campus filled with masks. Other than the obvious changes to society, people are left with many mental side effects from the experience that continue on to this day. I definitely felt the effects hard as I entered my first year of school since the pandemic began where I noticeably struggled with managing in-person classes, social interactions, and overall the feeling of being a mentally stunted college student.
In Fall of 2021, students returned to UCSB under the guise that everything was back to normal. However, there were still a number of remote classes being offered, daily COVID-screenings required to enter classrooms, and other restrictions you definitely wouldn’t have seen pre-COVID. Following a surge after Winter Break, restrictions were set into place again and everything went remote for a couple of weeks. But instead of keeping Winter Quarter completely online, we were forced back to school and thrown into in-person classes rather abruptly.
Once Spring Quarter started, everything was as “normal” as can be. But despite the two years we spent in “Zoom school”, having to officially return to full-blown in-person classes felt so immediate and sudden which made it even more difficult to adjust. I felt as though I couldn’t manage my time well since I had become so accustomed to watching lectures and submitting assignments at my leisure.
In fact, two years of remote learning really stunted my own psyche. On paper, I was a 3rd year, but inside I felt so much younger. This would be the year I’d start considering my future but I felt I missed out on all the mindless 1st and 2nd year activities I should’ve already experienced. I knew I was expected to have all this maturity but I was lacking a lot of experience the average college student would have by now. However, I found solace in the fact that I was not the only one feeling this way. Studies show that COVID has indeed changed the dynamics of the average college experience, with many students attesting to missing out on a lot regarding academics as well as social life. Personally, I witnessed many (if not all) of the friends I’d made during my first year making up for lost time by going out to parties in IV even if they were 21 and thus had the option to go out to clubs instead. Not to say everyone’s hobbies have to be the same according to their age, but it was very obvious these people were compensating for lost time.
The “normal” we once knew will never be the normal we will live with in the future. The pandemic left many people feeling stunted in their own lives due to the sudden pause in the regularity of their daily routines. However, we should not view ourselves as stunted. We all had this experience and were forced into a “new normal” that we should not judge ourselves for and simply adapt to. Although many of the effects of the pandemic can be deemed less than desirable, I think we can agree that surviving the pandemic (both physically and mentally) taught us many lessons in adjusting to unexpected changes and disasters.