Returning for Spring 2022, COVID-19 Remains

Written By: Annika Rice

I graduated high school from my living room couch and picked up my diploma in a drive-through.

Essentially being robbed from a proper graduation, I took the opportunity to begin my studies at UWSP on Zoom calls from my dorm room.

With humble beginnings at UWSP, it is safe to say that I was grateful for returning to in-person learning in the Fall semester of 2021.

I am even more grateful that the university has given students the opportunity to return, once again, to being in the classroom this Spring semester.

Over winter break, I heard rumors of schools across the country starting their Spring semester with two weeks of online learning. I’ve heard that once before, and we all know it did not end well.

I’ve felt the lingering fear of COVID-19 among the student body since I first stepped foot on UWSP’s campus, and it hasn’t dissipated. If anything, I am more afraid of losing my “normal” education now that I’ve gotten a taste of it again.

I have one course this semester that is online, once a week, for two and a half hours, but the others will remain in the classroom.

As a future educator and current student, I can say with certainty that camaraderie is an important part of making a class enjoyable. Maybe not all classes are meant to be enjoyable, but shouldn’t learning be?

Education has drastically changed since the pandemic started and so have students.

Everyone learns in different ways, and I have learned that an online education is not conducive for my learning style. I thrive on camaraderie and collaboration, and it’s just not possible in “Zoom University.”

Students are weary of the past, present, and future.

Walking into a classroom for the first time last semester was nerve-wracking, because I felt like a freshman all over again.

My nerves quickly simmered, but COVID-19 didn’t.

We’re back in person when the infection rates are at their highest and it seems ironic.

I got the omicron variant and booster shot in two weeks time over winter break, and I hope every day that I have antibodies shielding me from missing class.

I do not think we will return to strictly online education again, but who knows? We never saw it coming the first time.

The two year anniversary of the schools shutting down is swiftly approaching, and people are more scared and exhausted than ever as we approach a second semester of in-person learning.

Tensions are running high and so are the COVID-19 cases.

Yet, here we students are, hunkering down in the dorms, gathering our textbooks, securing our masks, and taking the ever-changing COVID-19 pandemic one class at a time.

Annika Rice

Co-Editor-in-Chief

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