“We’re going to get two weeks off from school!”: the famous last words of many high school students during that fateful month of March 2020, as schools around the country announced a two-week break due to the approaching pandemic of the “coronavirus.” Two weeks off in my senior year of high school? It seemed like a mini vacation, and my friends and I felt sure that the whole “coronavirus” illness would just blow over in a few days. Well, as we now know, that was not the case. I’m sure everyone is tired of hearing about COVID-19, but it was truly an era like no other, for better or for worse, mainly for worse.
Soon, those two weeks became three, then four and then the rest of the school year.
Then 2020 finished, then 2021, and things only began to return to normal when 2022 came around. After I graduated high school, college was quickly approaching, and I already knew before the pandemic that I’d be attending my dream school— Rutgers University in New Brunswick. Yet, my first two years of college did not turn out exactly how I initially envisioned them. I thought I’d be walking around campus, chatting with new friends and partying with a lampshade on my head.
Instead, I ended up stuck in my room, draining away from my asynchronous classes.
Each and every day for my first two years, I sat, reading through dozens of articles and writing a quick paragraph-long blurb about them. While the likes of discussion posts seemed quick and easy, I felt that they got really old, really fast. Then, I’d slap it into the Canvas discussion assignment and wait for my colleagues to reply. But this wasn’t socializing. I thought I would be walking to class, chatting with peers and engaging with professors about my newest ideas. It was work. Admittedly, boring and repetitive work. Everyone was just a name behind a screen: no face, no voice, no nothing.
But, being stuck behind a computer screen at home did have some positives.
I had the ability to always be with my beloved family and frequently see my friends who shared the same struggle. Writing countless discussion posts enhanced my already existing love for writing. I started submitting my work to online publications and even getting a head start on internships, and the feeling that I got once I finally saw my work published felt like no other. It felt invigorating, exciting and a chance to get my name and work out into the world. Yes, I was stuck at home, but I was stuck at home with my writing.
In the fall 2022 semester, I was finally able to dorm away at Rutgers. But I felt behind. Even though I was finally at school, I felt like a freshman, not the junior status my degree navigator reflected. I didn’t know how to use the buses, where the buildings were or any of the students or professors. I felt totally and utterly lost in every possible way..
Yet, self-pity means nothing.
I had to pick myself up and learn my way around campus. Like all my fellow Rutgers peers, I began dealing with the annoying yet relatable RU screws of late buses, packed gyms and hot classrooms. The uncontrollable heat in my dorm room in the middle of April, the disgusting floor bathrooms and the quest to find a new building for a class. But, with every RU screw came an RU… unscrew? I chatted with my floor mates as we did our morning routines, worked on projects with my classmates and met some of the kind and intelligent professors.
While I may still feel like I’m behind with my graduation date rapidly approaching, the people I’ve met have shown me nothing but kindness. COVID messed with a lot of people in countless ways, from jobs to students and even lives. I can’t keep concentrating on what I missed because then I’ll just keep missing out on what’s happening in front of me.
