I remember waking up the first day of classes for the Fall 2020 semester and I truly didn’t feel like it was my first day back to school. Every other year I have anxiously counted down my last seconds of freedom until classes are back in session, but this time it felt like any other day.  

Instead of getting up and doing my whole morning routine to ready myself for daily tasks, I laid in bed until five minutes before my first class started. I didn’t have to go to my car and drive 20 minutes, I just had to walk a foot over to my desk and hop on my laptop for my professor to pop up in a little browser window for me to see. 

Leading up to the start of the semester there was no reminder to get a parking pass, no effort was made to see when my friends had breaks we could match up, and no one was even curious about what was happening on campus. No one was going to be spending time on campus which led to none of my friends and I feeling like it was time to learn again. 

With the pandemic of COVID-19 disrupting all functions of society it really did force people to adapt to new situations and have to persevere to be able to keep moving forward. There was no more worrying about if I would be late to class because of traffic, instead I faced new problems like being late to class because my internet was acting up.

With switching to all virtual classes comes a whole new set of obstacles for students. Students are much more independent with no one telling them when things are due face to face and they can’t seek help in person. Many students go to college to make new friends and network, but the pandemic has made it harder than ever.

I have been in classes with many of the same people over the last few semesters for my major. I was looking forward to working with each other and graduating together for my senior year, but that was harshly taken away. 

I remember being in class with some of my classmates, and when we would break up into groups it would be fun because we could all socialize and make friendships. Now all we have is Zoom sessions and little email exchanges.

Since the semester started, I have been up to campus twice to work on articles and have not been able to shake the melancholy aura surrounding the college. I only saw two students on the walks to and from campus along with minimal cars parked in the lots. 

I never thought I would see the day I did not have to wait for cars to stop for me to cross the streets. When entering the student center it is usually flooded with noise, lights from restaurants and activities, but now it is dark and almost looks like it’s part of a mall that’s closing down. 

On the second floor of the student center there were a total of five students: three of them were together, the other two spread out. Every person at least had a mask on, even if it wasn’t pulled up all the way.

Going from there to the often busy but now barren Innerlink, I made my way over to the music and communications building. Every college of communication classroom was not in operation and it looked as if people just up and left in the middle of the day.

CSU is a school placed in a major city and it used to always feel alive, but now the campus feels like it was drained of the life it had. This has all made things more difficult for students, but I think it has taught us one valuable thing, and that is that we can learn to overcome any obstacle if we want to.

No one is forced to go to college, and everyone in classes this semester was willing to take the risk of a harder learning experience because we wanted to not let the pandemic stop our lives. People have learned to be strong and adapt to the changes to make the best of what we can.

Even with the campus being barren, I would still see many organizations holding virtually the meetings they used to do in person, and other students turning in excellent work in light of the circumstances.

The pandemic has definitely slowed people down, but it has not broken our will to pursue our goals and move forward in life.