The COVID-19 Pandemic has affected everyone around the world this past year, from kids not being able to play at local parks to workers not being able to return to work and provide for their families. Everyone has suffered in some way over this past year due to the wake of the Pandemic. Just like everyone else in the world my experience during the pandemic has been unique.
Missed Events and Opportunities.
When the Lockdowns first started the plan was two weeks to stop the spread — well they were wrong, the lockdown turned into almost a year worth of business, restaurants, and events being closed and cancelled. Last summer I had plans to go to a big country concert in Pittsburgh, PA that ended up getting cancelled because of the Pandemic, and has yet to announce when the concert will later take place. Coming into the Fall semester of 2020 a major aspect of the Fall semester was missing for many of the students, Penn State’s football season was cancelled until further notice. For all Penn State students this meant no games or tailgates that so many students including me looked forward to every Fall semester.
Effects on Personal Life and Family Life.
During the initial months of the Pandemic there were some positive aspects that came out of these events for me personally, but the positive was vastly outweighed by the negative. A positive outcome for me during this Pandemic was the amount of time I was able to spend with my immediate family, during this months was the most time me and my family have spent together in a long time with no other plans and no where else to be allowed me and my family to grow closer than we ever had been before. For the ability to deepen my families bond was truly a gift that I am grateful for. As I said before the negative outweighed the positive, even though I was able to spend the quality time with my immediate family I was not able to see many other people that I truly missed. I was not able to see my girlfriend, friends, grandparents, and other relatives for over three months, this was the hardest part of the Pandemic lockdowns that I personally faced.
Academic Struggles via Zoom.
78% of students — who have never taken an online class — said that online school is the least effective way to learn. In the same study. – College Pulse and the Charles Koch Foundation
Following the end of Spring break during the Spring semester of 2020 all Penn State classes were now held online via zoom, this was the first time I had ever taken part in an online class let alone having all of my classes now held online. With all classes being held on zoom I found it difficult to keep my mind from wondering and focus on my classes, while my parents and younger brother were all also on zoom calls in different rooms at the same time. To combat all of the distractions in my house I would use headphones to drown out the noise coming from my family member and I would also put a do not disturb note on my door during classes or when I was working on assignments, to help keep my concentration on the task at hand. But with everyone in my house hold streaming video feeds, this slowed our houses internet down to almost a crawl causing all of us to experience connection issues. Another issue I faced with taking classes online was that when I experienced two power outages I missed parts of lectures and sometimes entire classes due to not having internet connection. Having these internet issues was extremely frustrating at times, but not knowing when one of these incidents might happen caused me to become more motivated to get my work done as soon as I could and completely took procrastination out of my vocabulary.
This past year has brought new challenges to my life that I never thought I would come up against, but now living through those challenges has given me a new outlook on life. Along with new tools to cope with future challenges that may be presented to me in the future. I have improved my time management skills as well as removed the feeling of procrastination and replaced it with a stronger work ethic. The experience of the COVID-19 Pandemic has made me more grateful and appreciate what I do have, because you never know what tomorrow will bring.