Life in quarantine
By Nick King
Students in quarantine have not had an easy route specifically to completing their schooling. Some students intentionally avoid online classes for a variety of reasons, and now it was forced on them to take all of their courses online. It depends on who you ask, but students consider the change either one of the worst experiences, or, well I won’t say good, but not the worst thing in the world.
On a more positive note however, there have been a minority of students that in a way like the change. I personally am a fan of online classes due to the flexibility and although I miss Bradley’s campus, it has been nice to be home with family during the pandemic.
It has also been a large adjustment, for better or worse, for high school students. On one hand for high schoolers, their school year has come to a halt and their “summer” has begun. But on the other side of that spectrum, almost every single high school graduation nationwide has been cancelled or been switch to “to be determined”, if it even happens at all.
Expanding on high school, I sat down with my sister who is a high school senior this year and plans to attend McKendree University next fall. She said, “This pandemic has been tough for me and everyone at my school. Yeah sure, we’re done with school, but I think that we would all trade that to have a proper graduation in May as opposed to a month less of school. I was lucky too regarding my sport and the fact that we play softball in the fall semester, but I really feel bad for sports like baseball and track that had to cut their season due to the pandemic”.
As for collegiate athletics, I know first-hand the struggles many athletes endured. Our season got cut short, fortunately for us we got a year of eligibility back, but some student-athletes did not get so lucky due to budget cuts, complete 2021 cancellation of sports, and no financial aid available due to graduation. The major money sports like basketball and football and large universities will resume in the upcoming year, but as for the sports that pull in little to no revenue, they have already been cut from the NCAA agenda and their efforts will go into the revenue sports.
As for the majority of students during this time, it has been a good time to focus on other things like making money if possible, figuring out future plans, again if possible, and spending time with family.
But as for the state of the country, I am sure everyone is looking forward to things opening back up and slowly reverting back to normal.
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