Spring Term 2020 Blog Post #2

For this blog post, Claudia asked me to respond to the following prompt.

How has Covid-19 impacted your life this term? Talk about your experience working and going to school online. Have you ever taken online classes before? What do you think you are missing out on, and what is working well?

Compared to so many people, COVID-19 has had a small impact on my life, and I’m sorry if this blog post comes off as complaining or wallowing or anything like that. My experience with remote Carleton has been very good overall, and I’m really glad that I’ve been able to continue both my classes and my work with a vague sense of normalcy for the most part.

This term is my last at Carleton and was originally planned to be filled with spending time with my friends, enjoying being on campus and in Northfield (particularly during the spring that is always so pretty), and maybe finally succeeding in finding some sort of work-life balance as I underloaded while not also working on my comps or graduate school applications for the first time this year. That is not how this term turned out due to the pandemic. Instead of spending time with my friends in person, I have Zoom calls with them so we can watch shows together or talk about the book we’re reading for the book club we’ve started. I’m enjoying spring in Maryland by taking my dog, Mia, on lots of walks. And being home means that I don’t have many of my extracurriculars and so I am able to spend time with my Dad and get more sleep than I would on-campus. However, going downstairs and logging onto Zoom isn’t the same as walking to Laird for class. Unless I knew someone before this term, there is no way for me to get to know my classmates and to form acquaintanceships with anyone because when someone says something on Zoom, everyone in the call can hear; every statement is public. Despite the inability to feel a sense of camaraderie with my classmates in the same way, I am still learning a lot from both of my classes, and my professors are working tirelessly to make this term as fulfilling and successful as it would have been on-campus.  My synchronous course feels a lot like a synchronous online class that I took in high school, which has been nice because it feels somewhat familiar in terms of how the class is formatted and things like that.

I am so glad that I have been able to continue my work as an intern this term. In the same way that it has been an adjustment to taking classes at home, there was a slight period of adjustment to working at home. However, doing my work at my desk at home is not that different from doing my work at a table in the Libe (although my room is a lot quieter than 4th Libe most of the time). I’ve enjoyed getting to do global chat for the first time, which has boosted my confidence in my chat skills. I’m also not sure if I would have had that opportunity if we were on-campus. However, I do miss working at the Reference desk and being able to help my fellow Carls. With that said, I’m really grateful that Claudia was able to convert so many things to a remote format from my projects to the meeting with the Tretter and Givens Collections curators.

I think that overall, things have gone about as well as they could with everything moving to online formats. However, what I miss most, and what I will miss most, about being on-campus at Carleton is the sense of community. Being able to engage with professors, peers, and friends without Zoom fatigue. Being able to say hi and chat with the R&I librarians when I go to the desk for help or when I’m just in the library, rather than waving at them when we happen to be in the same larger meeting or talking to them just about a specific project. The community is what drew me to Carleton 4 years ago and it has been the best part of my experience, and I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to say goodbye and thank you in-person.