As a senior in college, the time left is bittersweet. Luckily, I have one more semester left in the Fall. But my “college years” have been cut so unbelievably short. Now I am spending the last few months of college working on graduate school applications and working any chance I can. Senior year is meant to be fun and memorable. Our generation has lost that benefit.
I transferred to UNH in the Fall of 2019. The year before I had gone to another school for one semester. Life happened which caused me to go home almost every weekend and take the Spring semester off. I had bad memories with my school and needed a change. I applied to a few schools and ended up picking UNH. I was so excited to go. It seemed like the perfect fit. Everyone I knew who went to UNH loved it. My mom and boyfriend helped me move all my things into my Stoke Hall dorm room and I was happier than ever. The semester went great. It was everything I could have wanted at a college. I made friends, loved my classes and my roommate was great. I could not wait to be back for Spring semester.
Getting back to campus in the spring was amazing. I got to be back with all my friends and taking classes I enjoyed even more. Within the first month of the semester, talk about the c*ronavirus started. My friends and I tried not to worry about it too much. But by the beginning of March, we noticed how serious it was getting. By brother was studying abroad in Italy. He got sent home. All the ivy league schools decided to close for two weeks, so many other schools began to follow their lead. My friends and I sat in our rooms together crying and thinking about what we would do if we didn’t get to see each other for two weeks. UNH announced the closing for an extra week after spring break. We said our goodbyes, excited to have an extra week off but mostly upset to be away from each other. We never came back that year.
Fall semester was quickly approaching and everyone was so excited. UNH announced that we could come back to campus. I was living in my sorority house; I could not wait. The issue was that all my classes were still online. I had lost the campus feeling of college. It was a college entrapped in my bedroom via Zoom. The school was extremely strict with spending time with friends, understandably. It did not feel like college. It was a mundane semester of waking up, going on zoom, doing homework, and starting all over the next day. I decided for Spring semester to go “remote.” Even though everyone was already remote, they just lived on campus. I thought it was worth it to save money on housing and take my classes from home. Another semester robbed from the college experience.
Now, this year, some things are beginning to go back to the “old normal.” Classes are in person, people can spend time with each other, and school events are being held again. Although we still live in fear of being quarantined, it feels like a “normal” year. But now I am a senior. A senior who has experienced one “normal” college semester and one “semi-normal” college semester. Many people our age will always feel as if they have missed out for the rest of their lives. My now “semi-normal” college semesters are diluted with a real job as well as graduate school applications. This generation has missed many opportunities due to C*vid. We are sad, stressed, and tired from the daily changes to the pandemic rules and regulations.
We just want the normal college experience.