Items

• 2020-09-25

  College and COVID

  When COVID-19 first appeared in Wuhan, China, I, like many others, thought that it wasn’t going to be a big deal. It would be contained, it wouldn’t spread very far, and the people of China would take the necessary precautions needed to prevent its spread to other countries. Sure, I had heard the jokes of every 20 year in a century having a new plague, but those were just jokes, right? I didn’t know how wrong I had been. As COVID spread, I was still in denial of how bad it would get in the United States. My university, Florida Gulf Coast University, was still intent on staying open through the end of the semester. However, three days after getting back from spring break, the Florida Board of Governors issued that starting Monday, all universities would move to all-online for two weeks. Along with many others, I packed up to go home for two weeks, though I didn’t have much confidence that I would be returning at the end. True to mine and everyone else’s guess, the all-online was extended through the end of the summer. Still having hope that I’d return to campus in the fall, I registered for five in-person classes, finished up my spring semester with all As, and got a job at Culver’s for the summer. I struggled with the mask at first, mainly due to my sensory processing issues, which made it difficult for me to get used to constantly having something over my face. Now, I’m used to it and I wear it whenever I leave my dorm room. Although I returned to campus for the fall semester, it’s due to my on-campus job. All of my classes had been moved to online formatting, which has not been easy. All online classes are typically more work than in-person ones since you have to teach yourself the material. Life during COVID-19 has definitely been interesting, to say the least.