The other day, I came to the realization that we are only a month away from this whole experience has been a year long. Whenever I ask someone about their quarantine experience, they always start with, “Well, back in March…” and I’m caught off guard because March is only a few weeks away. When March starts, what will we say then? “Well, a year ago, when I got the email saying school was canceled and this whole thing really began…” It doesn’t feel like a year has gone by. It sometimes feels like March was just yesterday.
I don’t think any of us expected the pandemic to go on for as long as it did. But the interesting thing is that we’ve managed to adapt to the changes. I had a conversation with a sophomore the other day and she told me that she felt sorry for the freshman class because we weren’t having the true collegiate experience. This also surprised me. Yes, I know that social distancing and wearing masks and not gathering in groups is not the norm. But as of this past year, it has become our norm. As difficult as it’s been, this has been our collegiate experience. Perhaps not the normal collegiate experience, but an experience nonetheless.
If we’ve learned anything this past year, it’s that we can’t predict the future. But we can decide how we deal with the present. Wishing for the normal days, pre-pandemic, won’t change what we’re experiencing. If anything, it will just make this all so much harder. One of my professors, also this past week, advised our class to enjoy some of the quietness on campus. She explained that it isn’t always like this and that once things go back to normal it won’t be like this again. “Try to enjoy what you can, to appreciate the little things,” she said. Even though it’s hard, and we all want things to be back to normal, doing this might help.