California, Carleton College, Friendship, Historians for Hire, Interview, Landscape/Nature/Outdoors, Loss/Grief, Zoom/Facetime
"The last week of school before we left sort of acted as a transition into the displacement I’d feel throughout the spring term. We packed up our room as though we were moving out, and I said goodbye to my roommate Lillian for the last time as roommates; even though they’d told us we were coming back, we all knew it was not true. Coming home was itself a surprise — I had been planning for months to spend Spring break with my friends in Chicago. I’d never been, and it would be the first vacation I’d get to go on without my family and just with my friends. Of course, the plan we had been developing for months fell apart within a few days. Learning from home and living at home still does not feel real. I feel lucky to have friendships that are sound enough to withstand even this, and we video chat for hours on end, watching the shows we’d started together on Netflix Party and studying together on mute. However, none of it feels the same. Everything feels slightly empty, and as much as I love to talk to my friends and even love my classes, it is hard not to feel grief over what I’m missing. I don’t get to sing with my senior friends in Acapella for the last term, I don’t get to experience my first Rottblatt or Sproncert, I don’t get to go to Social Dance Club and dance with friends, and I don’t get to meet my professors in person. It feels nearly impossible to develop relationships with classmates and professors on Zoom, even though I enjoy the classes themselves and know my professors are doing everything they can. Above all, there’s a shadow on everything, knowing that we are living through a historic period of death, and fearing that the life I’d worked so hard to build for myself may be permanently altered. However, I know that my friendships and my motivation are stronger than any virus, and I hope to keep working to build a life worth living for myself, even in quarantine." (She/Her/Hers/class of 2023/Undecided/ Laguna Niguel, CA/ Laguna Niguel, CA)
A.JPG; B.JPG; C.JPG; D.JPG; E.JPG; F.JPG; G.JPG; H.JPG; J.JPG