After five long months of languishing at home, slowly losing my mind, the time has finally come. Colleges are re-opening.

Not all colleges, of course. Many institutions have decided to remain fully online for this semester, while others (like mine) have gone as much online as they can while still technically being considered in-person.

Of course, sending thousands of teenagers and early twenty-somethings back to college campuses has not been without its complications. UNC Chapel Hill moved completely online within a week of classes starting due to a COVID breakout. The University of Notre Dame is quarantining all students for two weeks after COVID has spread around their campus. At Oklahoma State, an entire sorority is in quarantine after 23 of its members tested positive.

All of this chaos has led to a blame game; are these outbreaks the blame of the students blatantly ignoring social distancing guidelines or the universities who brought them back only to cancel classes and send possibly infected students back across the country?

Both. It's both.

It's hard to deny that many colleges are putting money above the well-being of their students. Just look at NYU letting their quarantined students practically starve, or the numerous student stories of institutions withholding information on school policies until the last possible minute. I know I've relied more on other students than university emails for updates.

That being said, university students at crowded parties and rushes are selfish and irresponsible. I've been more than a little frustrated both at freshmen who complained about missing graduation and their summers, just to turn around and behave in a way that's going to make them miss their freshmen year as well. I'm equally annoyed with upperclassmen who don't particularly care if everyone gets sent home because they have off-campus apartments no matter what. At my campus in the Bronx, the NY borough that has had the highest COVID infection rate in the city, I'm scared of irresponsible college students spreading the virus to families in the area who are already struggling with access to affordable medical care.

Our universities have put us in an extraordinarily difficult situation. For many people, myself included, we would lose our scholarship money if we tried to take a year off school. We would lose access to opportunities, internships, and classes if we went fully online. We would have to go another six months across the country from our closest friends.

But don't screw this up. Our universities are far from blameless in this, but we have a part to play too. Don't go to crowded parties. Wear a mask. Hang out in groups of ten or less. Regardless of whether you think COVID will seriously affect your health, it will ruin your semester if you're not careful.

I get it, okay? I miss normality too. Everyone does. But this is the closest we're going to get to it right now. And getting you and your classmates sent home two weeks into the school year isn't going to help give you that college experience.