Photo via @tonny_tran on Unsplash.
Realistically speaking, everything following March of 2020 has been nothing short of draining. I’m not even going to spend anymore time or energy harping on that because we already know, given how intimately familiar we now are with the effect that a pandemic has on our wellbeing.
Since the spring of 2021, we have seen and been part of some fairly groundbreaking developments when it comes to COVID-19, such as the production and mass distribution of three different vaccines. We have since been afforded the luxury that is the ability to live a bit differently than we were living at the beginning of the pandemic.
Though we are nowhere near back to “normal,” whatever that even means anymore, these developments have become somewhat of a double edged sword, as we are now largely expected to operate as though we are back to “normal,” even though most people are still living with the reality of the ever-present virus and the now 700,000 deaths that have occured in its wake within the U.S.
Speaking specifically from the perspective of a college student, I have never been so tired in my entire life.
I was in the second semester of my sophomore year when we initially were sent away from campus to begin remote learning, so I had a fairly substantial experience with university life before things went haywire. From there, I spent the back half of that semester and the entirety of my junior year doing college from my bedroom and only engaging with professors and classmates via tiny Zoom boxes.
While at the time I felt very drained by that new way of learning, I can honestly say that nothing could have prepared me for what it would feel like to transition back into the in-person learning I was once so comfortable with. I am now a senior, halfway through my first semester back in-person since the initial shutdown.
And I am so tired.
Don’t get me wrong, I am thrilled to be back to the way of learning that I have always loved and hoped we could get back to. I love going to class in person and seeing my friends and professors and socializing with them in a way that doesn’t require hitting an unmute button. I’m so glad that I get to sit in a classroom and attend club meetings outside of the four walls of my bedroom. It is exactly what I have been looking forward to since I was a sophomore.
With all of that being said, I can’t help but notice the way that we have taken away the kindness and gentility that we had gotten pretty good at extending to one another when we were remote.
The fact of the matter is that we are still in the depths of a pandemic that is wreaking havoc on our world daily. It makes sense that we are incredibly burnt out and maybe struggling to keep up with the marathon that is an entire semester in the real world.
We are now back to being around countless amounts of people each day, stressful in-person activities and exams and bearing witness to an overload of other stimuli that we had previously been sheltered from during our time spent remote.
In all honesty, I barely made it to fall break last week and I know I was not the only one.
Life is hard right now. There is a heavy weight that is put on all of us as we are expected to be aware and cautious of a pandemic, while catering to a workload that seems to pretend there is nothing else going on in the world.
It’s okay if you are really happy to be back and also really, deeply exhausted. Those two feelings can exist simultaneously. We are complex creatures and we are capable of many feelings and emotions. So if your head is spinning and you no longer feel like you’re able to keep up, you are nowhere near alone.