More than a Student.

Who am I without school?

I’ve been asking myself that question for the last month since classes started. Rather than running around campus, library to library, taking CTA to study downtown, or making coffee for my friends, I’m at home. I’m going to physical therapy, responding to emails at home, and consuming an excessive amount of Netflix. I’m trying to teach myself how to walk again and get used to my knee in a completely new place (which just feels strange more than painful). But more than anything else, I’m not in a classroom (virtual or in-person) for the first time since I started going to school.

When my life came to a sudden halt, I knew that not being in classes would force me to be honest about my identity beyond being a student. But in the last four weeks, away from school, sitting to revel in my thoughts, I realized how much I associated so much of who I was with being a student. It wasn’t that I didn’t also love writing, being a journalist, or doing my organizing work. However, I was a student before anything else. I would put my identity as a student ahead of my well-being too often, not because I always was eager to be a great student, but because I was always in limbo about what else I’d be without that facet of my life. Maybe it also came from the fact that I was drilled as a kid growing up too by my parents and even my peers that school would always come first…