GAB Studio

Around a year ago, I wrote a post about going into my senior year in a pandemic. Boy was it a doozy. Across 10 classes that I took, only one of them was in person once a week, and aside from that I was locked in my house completing assignments and attending lectures (although, let’s be real… I was sitting in bed at night watching recordings from earlier in the week trying to catch up…) via our now good friend zoom. This really sucked the life out of what I thought was going to be the best year of college ever. While it definitely had it’s ups, it had more downs than I ever wished and 90% are to be blamed on the pandemic. From not having the ability to be in class with my friends, say goodbye to campus the proper way, get to attend my last home football game as a student, and so many more small and large moments in between, senior definitely could have gone better…

What I didn’t expect to be so hard was the grad school application process. WOOF. Very early on in the pandemic, sports were shutting down like crazy. As there were so many professionals losing their jobs and my graduation quickly approaching, I realized that taking a few years in the industry before heading off to grad school may not be my smartest option. Once I realized this, I began the journey of figuring out where I wanted to go to school, what exactly I wanted to study, how long I wanted to be in school how much in loans I was willing to take out, where would I be close to family, what city will have the most opportunities, and so many more questions… Let me tell you, communication is key and since I was unable to visit any school in person before applying, the schools that emailed me back, hosted informational webinars, offered to set up personal zoom calls, and made me feel as though I was not going through this alone automatically rose to the top of my list. The two schools that I ended up being torn on were the most responsive, kind, and personable of the schools that I applied to. Thank goodness for the internet!

Once I landed on a school, it was time to plan a move from Atlanta to Philadelphia! I have never lived anywhere outside of Georgia so this was a whole new world I was about to throw myself into. The little things that I didn’t expect to have to deal with really piled up, and it took MONTHS of planning to make sure everything was in place. Another downside to the pandemic, we were only able to see videos of our new place before moving so thank goodness it all turned out well! As we were packing the truck, reveling in my recent undergraduate graduation and decline of COVID-19, the Delta Variant decided to stick it’s nose where it was not welcome.

My vaccinated friends, my very healthy friends, my very active friends, my very conscious-didn’t-ever-go-out friends were all sick now. How is this possible?! The worst year ever was finally coming to a close and now we are ramping it back up?! While I quickly realized there is nothing that I can do besides mask up, use hand sanitizer, and not go out too much, I was quick to think about my very short two years I have for grad school here in Philadelphia. I am hoping that classes are in person because I simply cannot make it through another year of “Zoom University”.

All of this to say, a year can change so much but also feel like it changed nothing at all. I am a year smarter, I have a dog now, I have 2 college degrees now with a third on the way, I live in a brand new city, I have so many new friends, there is a new President, we know so much more about the virus, yet I am still worried about the world and how little some people seem care about others, how violent people have become, how un-neighborly we have grown to be, and how I am millions of other kids will have to go through “unprecedented times” just to keep up our education. We were so close to precedented times! So close!

A year later, the same words still ring true. Wear a mask, wash your hands, and care about one another…