Life during the COVID-19 pandemic: A student's perspective

"You have one week to move out."

This was the email every student received on the University of Maine at Farmington's campus on Wednesday, March 11th. This news came the day after an email was sent out to students encouraging them to stay on campus for all of spring break. After receiving this conflicting information some students were not sure which email to listen to as the two had come so close together.

Others began frantically looking at how to quickly pack up or to figure out what to do about jobs, apartments and transportation home. When I first heard the news, I immediately called my parents as I knew they were both busy people to tell them our simple spring break pick-up had quickly turned into an event requiring two vehicles.

As the realization that the rest of the semester would be completed remotely, I began to worry. I worried about class projects with partners and how to continue, I worried about my schedule and dorm assignment that required in-person attention to prepare for next fall, I worried about my ability to learn remotely and what that could do to my grade point average (GPA), I worried about the money spent on room and board that wouldn't be used. And I was sad. I was sad about how I would say goodbye to my friends earlier than I was expecting; especially those who were graduating who I might never see again. I was sad to miss out on two months of my junior year. I was sad to miss yearly campus spring events such as frisbee on the green and the showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

However unsettling the worry and sadness was to me at the time, I am thankful that I am not a graduating senior. I graduated from Thornton Academy in 2017. I still remember everything about my final semester. This time of year for seniors is filled with so many highs and lows. It is the time in every teen's life when they start counting down to the end. They feel the sadness of their last winter dance, their last April break, their last full week of school, their last times to all be together, while looking forward to the rights of passage signified by prom, photos in the cemetery, senior night, baccalaureate and graduation. Rights of passage that this year may not happen or at least not in the same tradition.

As a junior in college, I hope I won't have to worry about graduation next school year and that I will be able to enjoy the experiences as a senior that many of my friends will miss. For now, I find that many of my other initial worries were warranted and many were not. I find that I learn better sitting in class, listening to professors with the ability to easily ask questions and get help during open office time as opposed to sitting in my bedroom at home watching professors new to remote technology give lectures on a computer screen while the dog barks to go out and kids ride bikes up and down the street.

I don't believe my GPA will suffer as the University of Maine system has enacted letter grade, pass/fail, or class drop at any time policies to ensure remote learning doesn't adversely affect students who are not used to it or don't have easy access to computers or the internet. The UMaine System also refunded room and board payments that would have covered the last couple of months of school. I imagine that had to be financially difficult for them but it was the right thing to do. And I am grateful.

I no longer have to worry about preparation for next fall. Things are happening to prepare for classes to resume. I am in the dorm room I wanted, a pod with 4 friends. I know what classes I will be taking and look forward to my final year.

I hope that by late August life will be back to normal and I will be on campus to assist new freshmen on move-in day. And thankfully I have one more year for the Rocky Horror Picture Show event, dressing up, singing the score and dancing the Time Warp. I watched it last week with my parents and as cool as they are, it just wasn't the same.