Experiencing Pandemic as a College Student
02 Apr 2020The seriousness of this pandemic
I learn a lot about biology and micro-organisms on my own, and I know how serious this COVID-19 is. People say “Look on the bright side! There are a lot of recovery cases.” but sadly we have no medication or vaccine for it that it’s not guaranteed that most people would recover from this highly contagious virus. Only thing I can do to help as a student is to stay home to minimize the spread of the virus. And there’s an importance to staying home, too, because the symptoms don’t get noticed until much later, therefore causing people to think they’re safe and they spread it to more people. Then those people, who don’t know they’re infected, think they’re fine and spread it to many more people. The coronavirus cases are increasing in the US only because people are not taking the quarantine seriously, therefore making things worse. For the safety of our family, our friends, and others, we have to stay home no matter how much we want to leave the house (unless it’s essential).
We hit more than 1 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide
Stay Home
Luckily, most of my class were either inverted or online, so there wasn’t too much change to my school schedule. However, it was different for my job. I’m a tutor at Honolulu Community College, but the school decided that they can’t pay for the student workers unless they are in the facility. It’s bit unfair because we can still help students with Zoom or tutor.com, but I am not getting paid because I refused to leave home. I’m only doing this so that I would contribute to minimizing the spread of the virus, plus I don’t want to get sick or get my loved ones sick as well. I don’t know how it’s affecting my students because they’re not getting help with their classes. Hopefully, they’re doing okey and safe from the chaos.
If you need help with your classes, UH Manoa has online tutors available through myUH
Stay home college student?
Even though, what’s happening right now is not a happy matter, there has been good changes in my college life. Even though most of my classes were either inverted or online, I still went out to work and campus to get resource. I have to admit that getting ready to go out and the travel time from point A to point B wasted lots of time for me as a college student. (I’m sure it’s not the same for people who don’t do makeup or live on campus.)
Getting more sleep: Because of the quarantine, as a college student, I am getting more sleep, which helps me a lot with studying for a longer time. When I’m out, there’s no time to take a nap or rest for a bit. The biggest advantage of staying home all day is that I am able to rest whenever I need to rather than only resting when I get home at night. Getting more sleep is helping me with focus and understanding things more easily.
No time wasted: For sure, because I don’t have to worry about travel time and time spent getting ready to go out, I spend most of my time studying or doing homework, which helps me stay on schedule in terms of due dates for homework. Pretty much, no time is wasted unless I decide to do nothing.
Working out at home: When I had work, school, and homework piled one after another, it was almost impossible to find time to work out. I know that working out helps me stay healthy and produce more white cells » which is very important right now because of coronavirus since we have no vaccine and all we have is our immune system. Since there is more time, it’s easy for me to work out when I wake up or before I go to sleep. There are many resource on the internet for working out at home, without the need for special gadgets.
No more back pain: Everyday before the quarantine, I used to carry heavy bag all day, which causes me to have back pain at the end of the day. It was hard to deal with because I have no other option but to carry my laptop and notebooks to write things down. Now, since I don’t have to leave home, all of my things are on my desk all the time, and I don’t have to carry my heavy bag at all. And, my back pain instantly went away after few days. I remember that my back pain would bother me when I try to focus on homework or lecture, and now since there is no pain, I can focus without a hassle. I really like it.
Actually eating: As a college student, I had no time to eat. I was always on the go, and it was just me and my water bottle all day. Now, I can eat throughout the day and I’m feeling physical changes in my body. Though I know it’s hard to be a college student, it can be improved by how the school works. As we are locked in our homes, we are starting to notice that many things can be virtual without the need of physical presence. Some lectures can be taught through online, and school still can function with the help of internet.
Overall, stay home and stay safe!
