Sometimes I feel like I’m just waiting for my life to resume, like with covid everything has just been on pause. I’m waiting to see if I get to go abroad again, I’m waiting to be able to do things that 21-year-olds do, and I’m waiting for the world to feel comfortable again. Life on campus with COVID is getting better. The gym opened this semester, more spaces are open for gathering and some classes are in-person again and it gives me hope.
Before COVID Lewis & Clark wasn’t a party school but it was a social school. Everyone knows everyone and we are friendly, but some of that community feeling has changed. Now I can’t say hi and hug everyone. Now when people walk close to me I move away or they move before I can process that we are too close for this new world we live in of masks and social distancing. Classes feel less personal than they did before. There are no side conversations or feelings of getting to know classmates in a zoom class. There’s no walking from class with friends and deciding to eat at the Bon together.
I don’t want to be pessimistic, but I can’t lie; everything about campus life is different. It’s to be expected because everything is different, but I wish that maybe I had taken a semester off to really enjoy my college experience because I’m not great at participating online. Classes online take a lot of self-discipline and dedication and it seems to be something I’m running out of on my third covid semester.
I’m still supposed to be going abroad next semester, but it doesn’t feel real. I’m not even able to hang out with my friends so traveling to a whole new country seems so unrealistic, but I’m hoping it happens. I’m hoping that soon we can feel some normalcy on campus and off.