Corona versus my college fall semester
Like every other college student, this past spring semester I started to make arrangements for the coming fall. I made my class schedule, and I tried to decide where I wanted to live (on or off campus).
But I had no idea that in a short time, the world would be hit with a global pandemic. Since corona arrived, I and many other college students have been forced to evacuate our campuses (I had three days to leave after I was notified) and finish the semester completely online.
At first, I was OK with being online because, hey who doesn’t want to go to class in pajamas every night. But as the semester went on, I realized how difficult doing online instruction can be for not only us as students, but also the professors. Teachers were not given much time to fully transition their material to online instruction. A lot of the tools we’d had access to — like the library, in-person tutoring, and 24-hour quiet study rooms — were gone.
Now here we are on summer break, but with several very important questions in the back of our minds…
What’s gonna happen when the fall semester starts?
Will we be on campus (face-to-face)?
Are we going to be fully online?
Will corona let us be great?
I’m not gonna lie. Since all of this has transpired, I have been watching my phone like a hawk, hoping to receive an email from my school with information about the coming fall semester.
With me being an out-of-state student, I feel the stress of needing to know way more. I just don’t have the luxury of being able to jump into the car and make a quick drive home. I either have to fly or drive for hours.
One thing I have learned about going to school during a global pandemic is that when it comes to needing important information from the college officials, you better just hurry up and wait. I say this because the situation is changing so fast every day that any decision can be changed at a moment’s notice. I hope that they make a decision soon so we can plan and arrange our next move.
Will corona let us be great? Right now the answer to that question appears to be no. For students like me with learning and thinking differences, the thought of having to do school online for a complete semester creates challenges. One is trying to figure out how we will be getting all of our necessary accommodations and tools that we normally use. Things like extended time, or a digital reader for books.
Despite everything being in such a limbo state, I have to believe we will be OK. One thing I know for sure is that we are determined. We will not let a pandemic stop us from going to school. Even if that means having to spend another semester online.
