By Maddie Ball

COVID-19 has shut down schools all across the United States, causing students to return home from colleges. Like Collegiate, most colleges and universities are now conducting school online, this has been a significant adjustment for higher education students and their families all across the United States. This has been a significant change for many college students, including my step-sister, who recently just returned home from college. 

Megan Adamik, my step-sister, a graduate of Midlothian High School and a sophomore at Virginia Tech, returned home during her spring break, expecting to return to her apartment in Blacksburg on March 13. One by one, as universities began to transition to online learning, she realized that she would no longer get to finish her sophomore year in Blacksburg. 

Adamik says that “At first it was very weird being home while having to do school work, since I haven’t done that since high school.” She was also upset that she did not get to say goodbye to friends that live in different states.

She is trying to stay positive and be productive with all her free time. She does school work in the morning, and then a workout in the afternoon, which is something she didn’t have as much time to do during college. Adamik has also been spending time with the family. We have been playing lots of UNO and eating dinners together as a family, as well as taking family walks once a week. She says that her “online classes have been going great, and I haven’t had an issue focusing.” Yet she misses being in a classroom setting and the social aspect of in-person classes.

As for Adamik’s VT classes, some classes use Zoom, like Collegiate, during regular class time, while other professors post lecture videos to encourage asynchronous learning. Adamik is taking classes in topics such as consumer and family finances, public speaking, and human sexuality, since she is majoring in human development in hopes of becoming a teacher, school counselor, or private counselor. She is somber about missing all the fun spring events at Virginia Tech, like the football team’s Spring Game, 3.2 for 32 Remembrance Run, Relay for Life, and, most of all, seeing her friends. The Spring Game is her favorite event of the spring because she adores football season. Usually for the Spring Game, students gather at Center Street and hang out before the football team’s scrimmage. 3.2 for 32 Remembrance Run is an important day to the students and faculty, because it is a run in honor of the 32 students and faculty who were killed on April 16, 2007. Relay for Life is another VT event that raises money for the American Cancer Society. These are all significant events on the Virginia Tech calendar. 

It has been strange for me as well, having my step-sister home from college. She hasn’t been home this much since she left for college. I get to see her every morning when I go downstairs for breakfast, and I see her each night at dinner, where we sit next to each other at the dinner table. Also, our whole family plays board games or card games a few times a week. Sometimes I go to her room at night before bed and we talk or watch videos together (mostly tik toks). I like being able to have someone close to my age to talk to, as I prepare to go into my college years. I have also enjoyed getting to hear about her college stories and personal life that I never knew about her. I am enjoying the extra time I get to spend with her right now, which is probably more time than we’ve ever spent together before. 

Anne Claire Quindoza (‘19), a freshman at the University of South Carolina, is also  home from college. She enjoys getting to spend the extra time with her family, but it is hard to be home because she got so used to her daily routine at school. Quindoza feels that she has no freedom, due to living at home and COVID-19, but she does have more freedom when it comes to her classes. None of her classes have mandatory attendance, since some students are living in different time zones or do not have access to the internet back home, so she has assignments that she can do at any time during the day. 

Quindoza believes that this way of learning is more challenging, because she learns better when she is in class working with the teacher or in groups with other students. She has less space to do her work because her entire family is working or doing online classes at the moment. At USC, she could do her work anywhere on campus and still be productive. Quindoza is also upset that she is missing her sorority, Delta Delta Delta, their formal, her business fraternity initiation, and trips with friends. But she believes she is very lucky because she has three more years to do these things. She said that COVID-19 has made a consequential impact on her life, but it made her and her friends realize “how good we had it until now, so for that realization I am thankful.” 

William Jordan, a graduate of Woodberry Forest School and a sophomore at High Point University, enjoys being home because he hasn’t been able to spend a full spring at home in eight years, since he was a boarding school student. He is excited that he is able to spring turkey hunt and fishing in the James River. He also missed his mom’s home-cooked meals and the company of his family. He does miss his friends and is disappointed that he doesn’t get to do a beach weekend with them. He also won’t get to see his senior friends, whom he met through the fraternity Beta Theta Pi and ROTC, again before they graduate. 

Jordan does not like his online classes, because he doesn’t feel like he is learning as much as he would in the classroom. He misses office hours because he found that time a really effective way to receive help from his professors. Jordan thinks that the online classes are more complicated, because his class times switch constantly based on when the teacher can join the online class.

Jill Kovach, also a sophomore at Virginia Tech, and one of Adamik’s best friends, says it feels peculiar to be home from college. She is not able to be as independent and says it is strange to not have to worry about making her own meals or scheduling her days out. She has found more time to do other activities she enjoys, such as drawing, cleaning, and redesigning old clothes. Kovach also says  she has more work in her classes than before quarantine, and that it is harder to keep up with deadlines. She is distraught that she cannot see her friends at school or at home, and she misses meeting new people at college and seeing her best friends every day. 

It has clearly been hard for college students to adjust to life at home, between online classes and having an abundance of free time that they didn’t have before. But it has helped some find new hobbies and do activities that they enjoy that they aren’t able to do at college.

Featured image credit: Wikimedia Commons user Buridan.