I think we all expected our spring semesters to go entirely different than they did. I can say with much certainty no one had a global pandemic in the back of their mind. But here we are, living through a global pandemic. While things didn’t go as planned for anyone, there must be a silver lining in this nightmare somewhere, right? I think there is. I am sad to say it took a global crisis of this degree to get me to truly appreciate the blessings of everyday life, but it is the truth.
I returned back to campus in February thrilled to be at school. The excruciatingly long winter break had me itching to return to my undersized dorm bed and overheated room. Having survived my first semester as a freshman, I no longer felt intimidated by all our school has to offer, and was eager to soak it all in. The next four and a half weeks were blissful and I was living life exactly how I pictured it. School was going well, my friends and I were having fun, and I was fully accustomed to the University of Delaware. Despite how perfect everything was, I will not deny there were days when I did not feel like leaving my bed for class. There were days when I did not stop to admire the scenery of the sun rising on the walks to my 8:00 am’s. As I sit back and reflect I deeply regret not soaking it in even more while I had the chance. On March 11th, it was all ripped away. And throughout this whole ordeal I have learned that nothing in life is guaranteed. I shouldn’t put off joining that club I always wanted to be in because “there’s always next semester.” And I shouldn’t take the bus out of convenience rather than choose a scenic walk because “I can do it any other time.” These are some thoughts that ran through my head daily and prevented me from making the most out of my time on campus. They are the thoughts of someone who is naive in thinking they are invincible, and nothing can happen to them to make everything change.
If we are lucky enough to return to campus in the fall, I want to become the person who lives in the moment, and does things now rather than later. I will stop to smell the roses per-say. The virus has done a lot of bad but in the end, at least it will teach us to be appreciative of our “normal” lives.
ENGL110 Spring 2020 11:15-12:05 
I liked how you talked about the little things like walking rather than taking the bus and looking at the rising sun while walking to class. It is the small things that truly make the college experience. I also liked how you said ” I am sad to say it took a global crisis of this degree to get me to truly appreciate the blessings of everyday life, but it is the truth”. Our lives are so fast paced that the only time we look around is when something tragic happens. We need to focus more on being alert to our surroundings and enjoying things.
-Mihalis Hrisafinis
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I really like your last sentence in your introduction, “I am sad to say it took a global crisis of this degree to get me to truly appreciate the blessings of everyday life, but it is the truth.” It is definitely sad to see that it took everybody a global crisis to really appreciate everything. You are not alone in this category, I feel the same way. This global crisis really changed my perspective on many different things.
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Personally, this gave my chills. The reason behind that is because you’re totally right. We don’t take the little things in enough because we don’t know when the last time we will get to join a club or admire the sunrise. Thank you for this blog! I really enjoyed this mainly because it was very personable and I could relate to it as well.
-Mya Mostrom
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I like your first couple of sentences when you are talking about how this was never ever a thought in anyones minds. We would think a third world war would come before a pandemic like this. It’s amazing how something like a virus can cause so much uproar in such a short period of time. It literally took less than one month for the virus to hit the united states and cancel our lives. I also empathize with you when you say how you got comfortable with school after surviving your first semester. This was just starting to get easier and then the whole world stopped.
-Lauren Sicker
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I really relate with how it felt that everything was “ripped” away. It seemed like the virus had been a threat but wasn’t at that stage yet, Delaware was mostly isolated and there wouldn’t be any issues on campus any time soon. My roommates and i would discuss and all agreed that we probably had a little while before we had to worry. The way you described how it came so suddenly and everything had changed in an instant was very relatable.
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I enjoyed your last paragraph “ If we are lucky enough to return to campus in the fall, I want to become the person who lives in the moment, and does things now rather than later.” I thought this was a great thing to live by. Your writing was very smooth and I was able to connect with it easy. This was a great blog to read.
-Vienna iacona
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I enjoyed your writing. It was apparent that you were aware of the things you took for granted and have learned to appreciate the little things more. I enjoyed your sentence ” I am sad to say it took a global crisis of this degree to get me to truly appreciate the blessings of everyday life, but it is the truth.” I can relate to this sentence because I took for granted the little things while at Delaware and now I might be transferring schools, there were ways that I could’ve made my experience more enjoyable. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this and appreciated your writing.
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