Ahh spring semester of senior year. What a time to be alive. You’re cruising through your last few classes before graduation and making incredible memories with your friends. Milestone after milestone rolls by faster than you could have possible imagined. Spring break signals that you’re just over half way through the semester, and some of the best moments of senior year are right around the corner. You’re in some awesome location enjoying spring break when you get that email. Yes, we all know the moment we got THAT email. At first, I’m sure a lot of us didn’t think too much of it, I mean who is going to complain about an extra week of Spring Break? But then it all came crashing down. We’re set to go under a state-wide stay at home order on Monday and classes have been moved online for the rest of the semester. To say that this is not how I imagined by senior year would go is a monumental understatement. I felt like I was just hitting my stride and was so looking forward to some events over the last month and a half of school, but that all came to a screeching halt. In the famous words of ESPN College Football Gameday analyst, Lee Corso, Co-VID19 said:
I’m still not sure how to react to the whole situation, let alone keep focusing on classes while living at home with overbearing parents and two siblings. I keep thinking about what I’m missing out on over these two months and its heartbreaking. No senior formal, no graduation, no last LDOC, no random afternoons at the pool, no more time with friends. I feel like I’m whining about missing out on all these fun things and that I should suck it up and deal with it, but its just so hard to do. Not in a million years would I imagine that the end of my senior year would be effectively canceled. Its been something we’ve all been looking forward to for so long and its just been ripped away from us. I won’t pretend that this isn’t affecting everyone in our age group, but please take a moment to think about those of us who it is really hitting hard. College seniors have had their lives completely flipped on their heads and are going to miss out on making some of the memories that would have lasted a lifetime. This meme really hits close to home and I’ve seen it on social media accounts of countless seniors at UNC and it really sums up how I think we’re all feeling at this point in time because it came so unexpectedly.
As heartbreaking as this whole ordeal has been for me, sometimes we just have to roll with the punches. Sure it sucks that we have to miss out on some things here and there, but there are so many others around the world and now here in the US that are seriously suffering from this disease. The best thing we all can do in this crisis is to listen to our government officials and the advice of health care experts. The faster we can get this over with, the faster things can go back to normal. Focus on your classes, your mental and physical well-being, and practice social distancing. Flatten that curve so we don’t see our loved ones with preexisting conditions suffer from this disease. Take some time to reconnect with your family that you may not get to spend a whole lot of time with. I think this whole situation can really bring about positive change in terms of the overall awareness of infectious disease and how easily it can be spread and can hopefully put a stop to the stupid anti-vaxxer movement. We do also need to realize though that when this is over with, we all have a responsibility to take care of the people adversely affected by this chaos. Tip your waiter extra next time you can go to a restaurant. Support your local businesses that had to close down for months and lay off workers. Most importantly of all, cherish every second you get to spend with your friends and don’t dwell on the little things that used to upset you. After all, we all now know how quickly that can all be ripped away from us.
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