A Closed Campus and Candid Reminders — Thoughts From an At-Home College Student

For a young person in the early stages of college life, the COVID-19 pandemic hit at the best and worst of times. I am truly fortunate to have a safe home to quarantine while the nation continues its dire search for a ray of light to vaccinate us out of darkness. This time has been hard for everyone, and I’ve learned that the human race as a whole is not adept at rapidly dealing with change — especially when it comes to uprooting our entire lifestyles for the sake of avoiding a deadly virus spreading around the globe.

On a personal level, I can’t help but feel a constant knot inside. I want to do my part, but I also want the freedom of living on my own, being a student, and spending these prime years with new peers and stimulating experiences. 

I am a sophomore at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., which has closed campus to students this fall, with all courses being taught online. I’m taking 18 credit hours in order to complete all requirements to graduate in four years, which has the benefit of keeping me occupied during my time at home, but it also requires me to teach myself large sums of information outside of the hours I spend staring at a 13-inch laptop screen.

I told my mom that I think all of this screen time and glaring UV ray exposure will take 15 years off my life. That may be an exaggeration, but I will not be shocked if all of this proves to have negative health consequences in the future. My personal “professional” advice: Screen fatigue is, in fact, very real. 

One instance of relevance in my pandemic-era college studies thus far involves an assignment on Chapter 13 of Hobbes’ Leviathan, which includes a deep analysis of the self-interests inherent in human nature. A prominent idea I took away was that when we as humans allow our self-interests to prevail, we are preventing the collective good of society. Because of this, we need a form of leadership that will check our self-interests and look out for what’s best for the people. When our self-interests are combined, they ultimately counteract each other, and this is how society functions. 

This concept got me thinking about how our society has operated during the past few months of largely staying at home during the pandemic. Many have begun leaving their homes without masks, acting as if the pandemic has withered away altogether, while thousands are still dying each day from this unprecedented medical crisis. Many colleges that have reopened their campuses are seeing huge spikes in positive case numbers, putting students and faculty at risk of exposure

So, whenever I begin to think about how much I wish I could be back on campus, studying with my friends and spending long evenings walking along the National Mall, I remember that those are strictly my self-interests fluttering around inside of me.

While being a college student at home in the middle of a pandemic is not the most exciting way to spend a part of my short four years, it’s a candid reminder that there will always be unexpected twists and turns in life, but each obstacle must be dealt with as it comes. It’s also a reminder of the many simple joys in life that I frequently take for granted, such as time spent with my mom and attention-seeking dog, or the array of succulents lining the windowsill in my childhood bedroom, and that, despite the uncertainties of this time, I am still able to learn and grow as a person. 

One thing is for sure: My “college experience” will be one for the books, mentioned in the chapter titled “2020: Living on the Brink of the Apocalypse.”