A Year Into the Pandemic, What Have We Learned?

Can you believe we’ve already been doing this for a year? For better or for worse, it’s undeniable that the Covid-19 pandemic has completely changed our lives. From masks to social distancing to more mindful hand-washing, the once-novel coronavirus has altered the way we care for ourselves and interact with others on a daily basis.

Though everyone in the world has certainly been affected by the “new normal,” students everywhere have perhaps felt the changes more significantly. We spoke with three Elon students to reflect on the changes the last year has brought—here are their thoughts. 

For a year now, life has seemed to press pause. Seems like a good time for some reflection. Photo courtesy of Unsplash.com.

Junior Anna Murphy says the most difficult part of the last year was trying to see the bright side and find hope in such a dark time. As someone who loves to be surrounded by friends and family, she says it’s been especially difficult to not see people she used to run into daily or spend time with friends outside of her immediate circle.

“In the beginning of the pandemic, it seemed if we all just kept our heads down and wore masks we might be able to get out quicker,” says Murphy, “but I’ve found it really discouraging and hard to remain positive when we are now rounding a year of pandemic life and there is still not a definite end in sight.”

However, she says the most significant change for her in the last year was to her education, because she found it more and more challenging to force herself not only to participate in class in an online setting, but to actually attend.

Murphy was completely remote in the fall, so she’s had a longer experience with online learning than most. She has since returned to Elon this semester but says she still doesn’t see herself “as interested in learning because of the way it is now…I’ve found it hard to be engaged or feel like I’m adequately learning.”

Julia Reddy, another Elon student, says the hardest part for her was understanding what the best choices for her and her mental health would be. Reddy was supposed to graduate this coming May but made the choice to withdraw from the 2020 spring semester and take last fall off in order to “mentally reset and recharge.” She explains that the decision to graduate a year later required her to completely rewire her thinking of the typical four-year college experience in America.

Still, Reddy says one of the positive things to come out of this crazy last year is the self-awareness, self-confidence and self-love she’s gained from finding herself at her lowest point.

“Overall, I’ve seen such a change in myself and the way I feel about the things I do,” says Reddy. “If I’m nervous or anxious about something I can praise myself for getting through that moment instead of criticizing myself and thinking I’m being silly.”

Junior Sally Long says the biggest change the pandemic brought for her was the lack of social interactions, which she says has definitely taken a toll on her mental health, even though in many ways, it’s allowed her to grow closer to people in her direct circle.

“I also feel like my social skills are not as great as they once were,” says Long. “So I’m kind of nervous for when things go back to normal because I don’t want to do anything ever again, but also I want to, if that makes sense.”

Long still maintains that one positive thing the pandemic gave her was the opportunity to spend a lot more time with her family than she would in a normal year, which she was very grateful for.

We ended our conversation with all three students by asking each what they would tell their pre-pandemic selves.

Murphy says she would have told herself to “buckle up and get ready for the ride.

“I was convinced the pandemic would have subsided by at least the fall and I could have saved myself a lot of disappointment if my expectations for ‘normalcy’ weren’t so high,” she says.

Similarly, Long says she would tell herself to really prepare because, “I think in early March 2020 we all really thought this was going to be a two-or-three-week thing” and to not be so ignorant about the virus itself.

Reddy says, “I would tell pre-pandemic Julia, ‘It works out in the end. You know it has before, even when it seemed like it wouldn’t, but everything happens for a reason and for some reason this had to happen to you now.”

The Edge encourages everyone to acknowledge this anniversary by taking a moment to check in on yourself and on your loved ones.