Written by Louis Verderame

Published on May 1, 2020

With a month down of being out of school and classes being moved online, I think we can all agree this is a crazy shift in all of our lives. Something that I have found beneficial is having to embrace this change with a positive attitude. 

This whole experience has shown me that I actually liked going to school. I like seeing my professors and my fellow classmates. I miss the whole process of going to school, getting in my car, driving with the music blaring, even parking in that damn parking garage, walking the halls and walking up those ridiculously long stairs in Beacon Hall. Everything. 

As you can tell, I seem to be in a rut. I think most of us are. Something that has helped me get out of this funk and start embracing what is going on is that I treat the school days as just that, school days. I wake up to an alarm, I eat breakfast, and, most importantly, I get dressed and out of my pajamas. That might be the most important aspect of all of this. When you stay in your pajamas, you tend to be more sluggish, or at least that is how I feel. Getting dressed gives your day some purpose and I think helps trick your mind into thinking the day is important. 

We all have seen an abundance of people now walking and outside exercising. A benefit to this whole school from home thing is that it has given us more time to be outside and to better our health. Something I have done to keep my mind away from the boredom is I started doing jump rope in my driveway. Not to toot my own horn, but in elementary school, I was a two-time Jump Rope for Heart champion, winning in 2005 and 2006. I am very good at jumping an inch off the ground. I also have taken my bike out and have ridden around my neighborhood to help break up the days even more. Getting out of the house in a safe way is super key to all of this. A way to do this is to make sure to avoid people; by that I mean, if you are out exercising and you see someone coming towards you, try to loop around them. Create distance.

Trying to get through this last month and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and the checkered finish line, I feel a rush of excitement. However, being that this is my last semester and that I am set to graduate along with the rest of the 2020 class, to get the news that we may not be able to have a proper graduation is a real bummer.  Yet the more I think about it and think about life’s bigger picture, college is more about the journey. It’s about all the work that we put in, the long hours of studying, the payoff of getting our grades, the professors that have impacted us, and the friendships that were made. Though the graduation ceremony is a special occasion, it’s the JOURNEY of college that we will all really remember, not the five seconds of a nervous blur walking across a stage.

At the end of the day you can’t dwell on the things you can’t change. You might as well try to find things that are new and fun. Try something that maybe you never thought to try because you didn’t have the time. This will soon all be over, but maybe you will find a new passion while passing the days! Embrace the suck!