Guest post: How would you describe this academic year in one word?
Each day, I put the Daily Deac content to bed around 4-5 pm Eastern. After our publication deadline yesterday, a message went out to students and families about our decision to pause the implementation of our plan to rename Wingate Hall as May 7, 1860 Hall.
The remainder of today’s Daily Deac is a guest post written by Blair, Class of 2023. She had applied for a micro-internship, which was an initiative out of the OPCD that gave current sophomores (now rising juniors!) the opportunity to have a brief internship in May and June with various offices on campus, including mine. I had asked her to focus on providing a student’s perspective in her posts; one of the topics we settled on was to reflect on the academic year that just ended. I’m pleased to share her fine work below.
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I think, as students, it’s easy to discount the 2020-21 academic year. Filled with long Zoom classes, virtual extracurriculars, and Canvas exams, many students would say this year was stressful and simply not what they expected. As a student who just finished my sophomore year, I can say I’ve felt all of the emotions of the year. I woke up with sore throats panicking about COVID while adjusting to life as a sophomore at Wake. I’ve thought deeply about what this year has meant to me and, in my contemplation about this article and the year, I decided to do a little informal survey. I made a Google form and sent it to my friends and sorority sisters with one basic question: How would you describe this academic year in one word?
This is a question I’ve been asking myself now that finals are over and I’m heading into my summer and junior year of college. How can I summarize the past academic year? As I said before, it’s easy to jump to the worst conclusion. So, when I sent out my Google form, I honestly expected the worst. I knew how much the pandemic changed our year, and I wholeheartedly anticipated brutal answers. And I’ll be honest, I did receive some of those brutally honest answers; two survey participants summed up the year as “atrocious.” But as the responses came in, though, I began to smile at some of the answers that peppered the spreadsheet. Many described this past year in words I was not expecting: dynamic, motivating, and unknown.
I’m not trying to say that there’s always a silver lining to the pandemic, and certainly don’t want to discount the year and its hardships. I’m simply proud, though, to be a member of this community and to be a Wake student. That was the pervading thought in my mind while reading my friends’ responses. Despite all of the curve balls and highs and lows of living on a college campus during the pandemic, these students — my peers — have somehow managed to grow from this year. It’s pretty hard as a 19- or 20-year-old to describe a pandemic year as “motivating” or “dynamic.” I’m proud to be a member of a thoughtful, introspective group of students that have allowed the changing world to, perhaps, change them in some way for the better.
The more I think about the past year, the more I remember the little moments. I was a student adviser, so I had a group of 10 first-year students that I would check in with from time to time and see how they were doing. When I asked my advisees how they were throughout the year, many of them made comments about the close-knit relationships they had formed. Furthermore, many were simply so thrilled to be in college that they didn’t know or care about what it looked like. Somehow, despite the challenges, they seemed absolutely thrilled to have a dorm room and freedom. They chattered on about exciting classes, new friends, and normal freshman topics. I know that certainly many struggled, but when I saw their faces during these Zoom meetings, they seemed refreshingly content.
I also remember the little comments within my own circle of friends. I frequently stayed up late talking with one of my suitemates about the various ways we had grown over the past year. I gave her my favorite book from quarantine, The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, and told her all about my newfound appreciation for meditation and contemplation. While taking out our trash, vacuuming the hallway, and getting ready for bed, we’d just talk. These conversations, I know now, will be some of my fondest memories of sophomore year. My suitemates, some of whom I didn’t know too well before this year, are now part of my inner circle.
I’m proud to be among students, both in my sphere and generally, who gave their best effort at contentment and growth during this year. I’m proud that my peers were able to acknowledge that this year might have, in some way, challenged them positively. It seems Wake students accepted the situation and enjoyed the little moments, and that’s hard to do as a college student. Many of us were told “these will be the best four years of your life” and many of us took that ever so seriously. The pandemic wasn’t part of that four-year plan, but we adapted, progressed, developed, and changed. I think we have gained a new, introspective dimension to ourselves that we might not have developed if those four years had gone according to plan. My survey experiment gave me an interesting framework to think about my past year and made me proud of the people in our Wake community.
I’m sure many of you are wondering what my one word would be to describe this past year, and I’ve chosen two to leave you with: I would describe this year in terms of community and introspection.