Classes for the fall semester are starting around the country, some remote and some in-person. Usually, fall is the season of a fresh start and a new academic year, and hope is what keeps us in good spirits the first few weeks of the semester. This year is different. We don't have that same hope to feed off one another, nor that reassurance that we're in this together when we see each other every week in class.
Students are worrying about the impact of remote learning on their grades again. Will they be able to self-teach and study at home? Will they be able to concentrate in an un-motivating, or even disruptive environment? Students studying for entrance exams have a lot to risk too.
College students are vulnerable to anxiety as our futures were already uncertain to begin with. The concerns over graduation, work, internships, and volunteering add up. It quickly becomes difficult to feel like you're making progress towards a vision of the future, your future. Thinking about the upcoming semester creates more anxiety in an already "low grade depression", as Michelle Obama called living in Trump's America on her podcast.
We do not know how the 2020 election will turn out, when a vaccine will be made, nor when this pandemic will end and our old normal begins. But we do have control over our present moment, and how we react to it. If quarantine has taught me anything, it is that there is no more important moment than the present one. Even when every day is a struggle to get through, the fact that we made it through to tomorrow is a huge accomplishment which should be celebrated. To avoid falling into the pit of anxiety, as I have done a few times this summer, it is crucial to invest in what you can control -- and to not think about what you cannot.
Spend time working on a project at home, something that is just for you. Something that makes you get up in the morning. Don't put pressure on yourself to excel at that project, or even to finish it, but instead focus on finding pleasure and joy in it. This will grow gratitude and hope slowly each day, and will offer a place of refuge amidst our anxiousness. We will get through this, because we are going through this together.
