After 10 months of staying in the confines of my house, I finally came back to Northeastern. I remembered the rush of packing everything on a Tuesday afternoon as I worked on my Cornerstone MatLab homework in Kennedy Hall with my friend. There was so much to pack, physically and mentally. Luckily, I kept the boxes that were sent to me in my closet to store all of my belongings. March 17th would be the day that my family would visit me on campus. Ironically, March 17th was the day that I got kicked out and moved back home.
Flash forward to May and June where I decided to take summer classes. Probability and statistics and genetics and molecular biology. The intensity and difficulty of the classes came from the constant grind that converted 14 weeks of content into 7. What made both of these classes harder were the asynchronous classes that gradually deteriorated my motivation. I was so emotionally tired and exhausted from being separated that I considered transferring. Luckily, I didn’t. I kept up with my physical health by eating healthy and staying active (before my surgery of course) and socialized a lot more with my cousins through video games.
Then came the fall of 2020. This was the first time I have ever gone full remote and synchronous for all of my classes. I kept a high expectation of what I should be doing during and after classes. I took advantage of the resources I had at home in addition to the extra safety nets my professors offered because of the pandemic. I also kept in touch with my college friends through homework groups and Discord chats. Unfortunately, I fell out of touch with the student organizations because I was still secluded physically from campus. I hope that Spring of 2021 will ignite my motivation to become more active with the clubs that I joined before getting kicked out, especially ChemE Car.
While I may not have a campus life throughout most of 2020, I am hopeful that 2021 will yield the bountiful nourishment that I didn’t get while at home, whether its social interactions, in-person demonstrations, or a coop, and that everyone will be able to beat this pandemic once and for all.