Online University: the Good, the Bad, the Terrible

I think we all have heard about the COVID-19 pandemic in which many of us experienced the lockdown for multiple months and for some of us, we are still in lockdown.

The Good

Quite a bit of good came out of this lockdown. At first, many people celebrated because there was no longer a commute to university, we could wake up an hour later or maybe even two hours later. We could wake up at 8:59am for a 9am class and there were no consequences of that. We had open book exams and many classes were switched to a pass/fail grade. I think I saw a lot of the good in the beginning. I was getting more sleep, having more time to finish my work (let's face it, it was more time to procrastinate).

I saved so much money at the beginning just by not needing to travel. At least $30-$40 a week. It wasn't like travelling from my bed to my table cost me anything. I also saved money by making more of my food at home instead of buying food at university. One thing they never tell you about uni is the expensive shitty food. The lockdown even gave me more reasons to just rewatch lectures because everything was recorded, I didn't need to turn up to lectures because the experience when watching live or watching a recorded version was identical at that point. I used to turn up to math lectures because work was put on the board, computer science lectures had interactive components and I wanted to see my friends.

The Bad

I think very soon after the excitement of staying home wore off, I began to feel the toll of not leaving the house. Cases in Australia starting rising, hotspots were popping up everywhere and worst of all, no toilet paper could be found at my local Woolies for at least 2 months. I had only just started university this year and did not really have any time to connect with people within my own degree or faculty. It was literally just me and my friend from high school who had also chosen the same degree. We literally did everything together, we timetabled our classes together, we did work together, we asked each other to proofread assessments where it was allowed.

Seeing the news on my socials feed didn't help me at all. It was getting worse every day. Elderly needing to fight for their toilet paper and necessities. Bigger families were not able to access sufficient supplies for their family because of the restrictions on the number of certain items that could be bought in one transaction. People were being shamed for their race, people were being seriously injured because of reckless shoppers, people were suffering because others were being careless when leaving their homes.

The Terrible

When I really thought it couldn't get any worse, it did. It was announced that my university would not be opening up for in-person classes anytime soon. Every day had a new article about a new record high in the number of cases. I was becoming more and more shut in, unable to separate relaxation from work. When the term break rolled around, nothing changed other than the fact that I was getting more and more bored. I worked on an old 3000 piece puzzle that I had from years ago but that was finished within 3 days and I had another 2.5 weeks left. I started ordering puzzles online and putting them together. First one that I bought was 6000 pieces and that took me 2 months to complete because I started my second term of university in that time.

Death tolls were rising every day. I continuously saw articles about looting of small businesses, about larger businesses collapsing due to the losses, people going into debt to pay their bills and survive. Everything was getting worse day by day and it seemed as if there would be no end to the issues that came with this pandemic.

The next point is terrible but also brought good along with it. The Black Lives Matter Movement saw many people together to fight for the rights of minorities across the planet. We saw all kinds of people coming together like never before. We became so much more connected as humans while being physically disconnected.

What can we take away from this experience?

Well first of all, the pandemic has made me realise that I am way more dependant on others than I had thought I was. No matter how introverted anyone is, there was a breaking point under which we realised that we cannot survive alone. I also learned how to look after others and myself when there was no one else that I could rely one. I let myself loose and discovered new things about myself. I matured and became a better version of myself. I learned and learned but I also stopped taking university seriously.

One key thing to take away whether you are still in lockdown or just out of lockdown is to look after the person next to you, no matter who they are.