So This is Just How School is Now

Somehow, three weeks of the quarter have already gone by and I feel like I’m just settling into being a student again.

This is the second go at schooling online and somehow it feels almost as challenging as the first time through. I do appreciate the privilege to be back in Chicago again, to be back around some sort of campus. Yet it almost defeats the purpose once you learn it’s fairly difficult to reserve good timeslots in the libraries to study, much less have the same access to other random spaces to just learn. And after what seems like a brief period, we’ve made it through a third of the quarter and almost all the time let before Thanksgiving.

What initially seemed like a challenge in finding a means to continue to be an engaged student has now become quite the test against the weather to find some sort of life habits that prioritize both my well-being and pursuing the types of learning I want to do. We’re back to the mundane routine of waking up, going in front of our computers for hours on end for discussions, then some time to eat, then back at it for the rest of the day. And yes, there’s no doubt about that routine being a lot less repetitive by at least being around campus, with amazing roommates. But this is just what life is now.

I also join this reality with the fact this pandemic isn’t ending anytime soon and instead…