As the year of online learning comes to an end, I am excited and hopeful to see plans to return to some normalcy for next year.
However, while I am looking forward to being back on campus and having more in-person classes, I also think that it will take some time to readjust once again and get back to how things used to be.
In my opinion, the biggest difference will be getting back into the school environment and routine, but I think it will make a huge difference for learning and being social. Being at home and taking classes all virtually this year was already a major adjustment and was a completely different environment to be in.
I did not mind living at home this year. Like everything in life, there are pros and cons and things just tend to go better if you count your blessings and not your problems.
It was nice to be at home and have all the luxuries that come with that, such as having my own room for once and not having to eat cafeteria food. I also broke my foot and getting around was very difficult so actually being at home with online learning was somewhat of a blessing in that respect.
While I prefer traditional in-person classes, there are a few things I will miss from the online learning experience and take some time to readjust to the way things were before the pandemic. For example, I will miss having a little bit more time in the morning and throughout the day that I got since I saved time by not having to walk or drive up to campus since I just had to log onto my computer. I will also miss being able to wear pajama bottoms and slippers to class and having a cozy blanket nearby while I learned.
Presentations also felt slightly less stressful for me during my online classes because I don’t think everyone paid attention as much with online presentations and that took some pressure off of me.
While I enjoyed some aspects of online learning and being at home, it was still challenging at times and hard not being in the campus environment.
Online learning could be difficult at times because of factors such as zoom fatigue, not seeing friends nearly as much, not going to as many fun social events or doing stress-relieving activities. It just felt like all work and no play. While I was able to go to a few events over zoom, some things just weren’t the same.
As of right now, my schedule for next year includes a balance of fully in-person and fully-online classes with a few hyflex courses. I think this will take some time to get used to because my classes are all split between different modalities and I have been primarily online for the past two semesters but I am glad to see some semblance of normalcy. Best of all, I will be on campus with friends enjoying the college experience in my senior year!
