I was a college freshman living in the dorms when everything shut down. After a few days of warnings from my professors about what we would do in the event that we did go online, and things I had heard from my friends going to schools in other states about how they had already gone online, CU students finally got that dreaded news.
We were basically just emailed letting us know we needed to go online for the rest of the semester, just like that. The seniors would have no graduation and the freshmen had to leave the dorms. Everything we knew would change. We had to say goodbye to all of the dear friends that we had made and spent pretty much every day with for the past eight or so months, it was devastating.
I really wanted to soak up every last moment, knowing we would all be leaving and going back to our hometowns, but not knowing when or if we would see each other again, after leaving the dorms, we had to do online classes and although it was something completely foreign to a lot of us, I think it also connected a lot of although we were all Living in different situations, we all had this shared experience of online classes.
And I definitely have a few funny memories from that time of everyone kind of losing their minds and doing anything to combat the boredom in quarantine. I’m extremely grateful that all I had to worry about was boredom and cabin fever because things could have definitely been worse. Fast forward to the fall semester, I got to move back to Boulder.
Having to do online classes, wearing masks, and only leaving the house for groceries in the occasional class when we were allowed on campus was a bit unconventional for a sophomore year. But I’m also extremely grateful that I got to live in a college house with friends, which gave me a sense of normalcy.
It still is really sad looking back on what we weren’t able to experience and wondering how things could have been different. But I was able to learn a lot about myself and grow really close to my roommates, and I really wouldn’t trade that for the world.
