Students reflect on a year amid the COVID-19 pandemic
This March marks one year since the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic took hold of the nation, reigning students in for months of online learning and social isolation. The consequences of the pandemic forced high school seniors from all over the country to surrender their preconceived notions of senior prom, high-school graduation, and the day they would hug their parents goodbye before embarking on their first year of college.
Unfortunately, as our country’s circumstances remain stagnant, first year students at the College will never experience social or academic life in the same way as students from years prior.
For Ainsley Bonin `24, the pandemic has limited opportunities for socializing with her peers and meeting new people.
“When I go about meeting new people and getting lunch with them, COVID-19 is always in the back of my mind. I’m afraid that, when I’m with someone, it’s just one more person that I might have to be contact traced to, so I feel like I try to limit myself to a smaller group of friends which makes it hard because I don’t know as many people as I would like to,” Bonin said.
The pandemic has presented many problems for first years and upperclassmen alike. Catie Riley `21 has faced several challenges with remote learning.
“Learning during the pandemic has been an adjustment. I’m able to focus more when I’m in person because it’s more engaging and I absorb the material a little easier. In the fall, I was fortunate enough to have all in-person classes, so I was very lucky for that. But, in the Spring I have two remote classes, so I’ve had to learn how to adjust to that by making sure I am keeping up with the material and focusing,” Riley said.
Students that live downtown have another set of problems to deal with because of the pandemic. Riley struggles with issues like transportation on a daily basis.
“Trying to find a place to take those [remote] classes can be a bit of a hassle, especially when trying to balance that with [my] schedule,” Riley explained.
Remote learning, for some, was better because it allowed them to work at their own pace, especially when confronted with many tasks to complete.
“I kind of like hybrid and remote learning in that, I like doing work on my own time, so I personally think that’s a benefit. I know not everyone likes remote learning, but I love the hybrid format,” Bonin said.
Riley also felt that remote learning was convenient at times.
“I’ve enjoyed some parts of being remote because it’s added a little bit of convenience. Like for some sort of a mandatory meeting, people are usually crammed into an auditorium or gym and it takes forever to get everyone in or out before you can even get started on the meeting. But now, we can just hop on a Zoom call and handle administrative meetings that way,” said Riley.
“Also, through Zoom, I was really fortunate to get a remote internship this past summer,” Riley continued. “Though it would have been nice to be in person, the remote aspect gave me a lot of flexibility for my summer and allowed me to do things with my day instead of being stuck in one place from nine-to-five.”
The uncertainty around the pandemic creates much stress in and of itself.
“I know for me, coming into the fall, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Just the day-to-day of making sure who you’re hanging out with, or if you are seeing too many people, and having all of those questions in the back of your mind, has definitely impacted my schoolwork. Sometimes, it was a little bit harder to focus when I was worried about these outside things. It’s definitely been an adjustment,” Riley noted.
Students at the College also had different expectations for how this school year would go, so when Colby had a successful fall, it surprised many. Bonin doubted this year would run as smoothly as it has, given
the circumstances.
“My expectation was to basically just be on my own for the entire year, and that has not been true at all. I was kind of thinking that I would just be restricted in my room and not able to do as much as I have been,” Bonin said.
While first year students didn’t get the college experience they had in mind, they made the most of these trying times.
“I feel like I made a very close, small group of friends very quickly because I was very socially deprived at the end of my senior year, so it was really nice to have a new beginning. And, I feel like I changed because I kind of latched on to a group of people and then got close with them very quickly as a result,”
Bonin commented.
Riley wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, but appreciated how well the College has handled COVID-19.
“Honestly, I don’t really know what I expected in the school year after getting sent home in the spring, and then this summer not even knowing if we were going to come back,” Riley said. “I’ve just kind of gotten used to going with the flow and taking information as it came. I was just excited to be back in the first place. I was really worried we were going to get sent home again and I didn’t want to go through that after we had to do it all in March.”
Ultimately, Colby students have had so many different experiences over this last year and have proven their resiliency, adapting to every obstacle thrown their way.
~ Jenna Boling `24
