by Sydney Santos, LiveGirl Marketing Intern, Sacred Heart University ‘20
The time stamp in my head. My life was flipped upside down on March 9th at 3:46 pm. That was when my university emailed us saying that we were going through with online classes until the end of March. If only that remained the case. At first the situation was very fluid, and we were taking things day by day not knowing how severe the situation was. But now school is online for the rest of the semester, and our May graduation date is postponed indefinitely. This is not me complaining; I truly am so grateful to my university for promising to eventually celebrate all of our hard work- this is just me embracing the uncertainty.
Going to a small university feels like you’re in your own little bubble. We never feel like all the craziness that is going on around the world will affect us, but unfortunately the whole world is struggling with COVID-19. I was trying to stay at my house at school with my friends as long as I could. I was almost treating it like winter break. Honestly, it felt like the only thing I had in my control. Luckily, our SHU community provides a lot of support, and even in a time like this, you’ll never feel alone. So I finally gave up on trying to stay isolated in Connecticut with my housemates, and came home to my family because I needed their support. Letting go of the sadness I felt about missing out on all the lasts of being a senior in college is the best thing I could have done for my mental health. The past two weeks I have been stressed about the things out of my control.
So after suffering of a migraine due to 12 days of crying, I decided enough of enough and I should have gotten a grip earlier. I realized I benefit from schedule- and so I developed a “new normal” schedule. After two weeks, online classes via Zoom are in full swing. My professors are lecturing and I am back to taking notes in this new form of learning through video conferences. With this new work from home lifestyle, I am allowing myself to sleep in and take my time getting ready each morning. Since I no longer have to babysit, go to work, or dance class, I literally have nothing to do besides focus on my school work and my mental health. This is my new norm schedule:
Alarm rings- wake up and get ready
Stretch or meditate for 15 minutes
Eat
Attend online class
Work on any assignments or LiveGirl internship
Have lunch
Play with my bunny
Take a walk outside with my mom (or some kind of exercise)
Watch some TV or talk to my friends
Have dinner
Watch Jeopardy with the family (a tradition I missed while away at college)
Do a little more school work or internship work
Pick a movie or TV show
Shower and have a spa night!
I try to spread out my day throughout different parts of my house so I don’t feel trapped. My family and I are also going to enjoy each other’s company by having game nights and making Tik Toks together! Although it feels like everything is at a halt, there are many ways for us to stay productive and have fun from our homes. It is important to look for the silver linings in any situation. For me, I am blessed to rejoin some family traditions and spend more time outdoors. Yes, we all want our lives to bounce back to normal within the next month, but we need to be considerate and make sure our nation is healed first!
