This past spring semester, the world stopped due to a global pandemic virus, COVID-19. In terms of the way college was run on March 13, 2020, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo shut down all schools in the state, elementary, middle, high school and all colleges in the state. Geneseo had to send all students and faculty home for the remainder of the Spring 2020 semester and wouldn’t know when we could come back to campus.
I thought the Spring semester would be normal but it couldn’t ever be a normal college semester from home. Some professors slaked off and left us hanging while others did everything in their power to keep our heads and spirits high even though we were away from our Geneseo home. When I went home, I did so great for the first few weeks, keeping on track with all my school work and tests and studying. But as the weather got nicer and warmer over in Buffalo, I was slacking off and spending more time outside and forgetting I still had college work and homework. In the last few weeks of April and May, I just kinda stopped doing all my work. And this happened before in high school, I almost didn’t graduate my senior year because I was just done and burnt out and drained from school because the rain and the grey skies came to good old Buffalo New York and even some snow, believe it or not. I tried to get some work done in each class but some classes I did great in and other classes got no attention or any work put in. It was a hard semester to say the least.
During all of this, I have learned so much about the human race and myself which was eye-opening and very interesting to say the least. I learned that no matter what happens people will always show a hand of support and try to help you through everything life throws at you. Getting stuck at home for 6 months doesn’t do anyone any good unless you have a good team in your corner. So the last few weeks of the semester were very hard and was a big uphill battle with turns in the road. I started slacking and it was hindering my success of the semester because I really needed this to be a good semester after the Fall 2019 semester because it was a big change from high school to college and I had to do more things by myself and I didn’t know how to ask for help from trusted adults and teachers.
After all of this, I tried to get myself back on track with the majority of my classes and it did work. Once, I had a sit down with my mom and really talked with her, we made a new study plan and it was a few hours a day with breaks and it really worked. But not for every class. Both my INTD courses suffered from this and it was still hard for me to focus on these classes. Because I was putting so much effort into my major required classes and needed to pass them so I don’t need to retake them and not graduate on time. The INTD’s suffered the absolute most and I had no way to try to focus because everytime I tried to write an essay or do grammatical quizzes my mind would just go to everyplace else and couldn’t make me focus on what I needed to do.
In the end, I learned so much about myself as a person and as a student. This fall semester 2020, will be different and come with its own challenges but I have learned so much that I should be able to overcome everything that life throws at me. I am happy to be back on campus even if some classes are being done on my bed with a bowl of popcorn next to me or having a burrito for breakfast. My in person classes are so nice to have after the last semester at home. It will make me work harder, ask for help when I need it and reach out when I am stuck. This will be a very interesting year but I will overcome it.