It has been roughly five weeks since students at Cabrini University were forced to leave campus and continue their learning remotely for the safety of themselves and the community. The past few weeks have been life-changing for students around the world during this unprecedented time. For many students, this has become a time of many mixed emotions, new reflections and perspectives about the world as they know it.
These past few weeks have been very challenging for many students as they have been forced to adjust to major changes and adapt quickly to a new environment and lifestyle.
It has been a hard time for many as they are still coming to terms in accepting this new reality, with the adjustment being easier for some. The process of acclimating has been different for everyone as some have had a harder time than others.
“It was a shock at first but now I am trying to adjust to it,” Mary Pawlicki, senior early childhood education major, said.
Pawlicki explained that this transition has been very hard for her but that she is trying to stay positive and keep herself busy. While this has been a major adjustment and with the remainder of the year cut short, Pawlicki wants to give her attention to matters such as helping out her family and doing fun hobbies.
“I have been trying to keep up with my schoolwork and helping my parents,” Pawlicki said. “I have been baking too.”
Meanwhile Amanda Lynn, junior early special education major, also feels that the abrupt change was hard to deal with at first but that it has become easier as more time has passed by.
“Some days I feel like it’s a vacation I’m taking and I’m fine with the quarantine because I get why we do it [but] other days I want my life back with my friends and family,” Lynn said.
While at home, Lynn has been handling the situation by doing activities such as spending more time with her family, staying in touch with friends online, walking her dogs, working out, reading books and watching Netflix.
Similar to Pawlicki and Lynn, many students have taken part in activities and hobbies in order to occupy themselves but one of the biggest problems for many students as a result of the pandemic has been boredom.
“I am bored and bogged down with school work,” Mary Scafidi, junior criminology and sociology double major, said.
In Scafidi’s case, the process of adjusting was not too bad but the challenging part was getting used to being at home “full time.”
Like many students affected by the pandemic, Scafidi has found it to be difficult getting used to the new limits created by the pandemic. While adjusting and going back home in itself was not too difficult in her experience, it has been hard coming to terms with the fact that her home is now her new work space and that she can not see her friends in person.
“I just want to be able to leave my house and not worry. I liked living on campus and it’s weird to have my house as my campus now,” she added.
Like Pawlicki and Lynn, Scafidi is grateful to have her family by her side and she is grateful for the fact that she has somewhere safe to go during the quarantine.
Pawlicki, Lynn and Scafidi all miss college life and seeing their friends every day but they are grateful for being able to be with their families during this hard time and having the ability to connect with their friends still even if it is not in person.
“The biggest impact has been not being able to move around as freely as I was used to,” Scafidi said. “I got used to going wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted and now I can’t. This also made me realize that I miss all my friends and everyone who I saw on a daily basis.”
All agree that the hardest part has been not being able to see their friends and having to adjust to this new norm of living with the unknown.
Although this has been challenging for all of them, they want to stay positive and believe that while this is not an ideal situation in any way, shape or form, that it has been eye-opening and changed their perspectives about life.
Lynn believes that when the quarantine is over she will be more thankful for her life and everything she does, even small things such as going out and seeing friends. She also wants to travel the world more once everything is under control and she has a new outlook on living life.
Meanwhile Scafidi has been reflecting on how much things have changed and how grateful she will be when the quarantine is over.
In the end, they all agreed that they will no longer take for granted the simple things in life once this is all over.
