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Delaney Stouder

Dr. Bonnie Whitener

En 102-020

April 15, 2020

Everything has changed…

When I left that Friday for spring break, little did I know that my life would be changed

drastically. That my normal everyday life would seize to exist. All of my friends, and the new

life that I had built for myself in Tuscaloosa would be gone until further notice. And the worst

part about it was I could not do anything about it. I went from living my own life, being able to

spend countless days with my friends, to going back to living with my parents in a small town

called Centre, Alabama. It was all okay though or so I thought. I had time to spend with my

friends back home and catch up with them, after all, it had been a while since I had got time to

spend quality time with them. I also had a slight sense of hope that I would be back in

Tuscaloosa for Orientation in the Summer with my Orientation family.

However, a rather large curveball was thrown my direction, along with the rest of the

world. Seeing people and socializing soon disappeared. Social Distancing became the new

normal. This pandemic had changed the lives of everyone. At first, I was not so affected by the

pandemic. I kept living life like normal, spending time with my friends and although classes

were online, I still had hope of going back to Tuscaloosa during the summer. A week or so went

by and things started drastically changing. My parents became paranoid, the news spread more

upsetting news and states even began closing down as numbers of the Coronavirus skyrocketed. I

went a few weeks in quarantine and then started feeling as though life was pretty pointless if I

am stuck looking at the same four walls for days on end. I told my parents that I wanted to go
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spend some time with my friends and that we would only be doing outside activities such as

hammocking. At first, they were okay with this, until my brother started getting upset. Which

was a little understandable considering he is at higher risk for the virus than others in the house

due to his asthma.

Being in the house with the same 6 people, two of those being under the age of 7 was

hard. I soon became frustrated and really just wanted to get out of the house and see my friends. I

missed my friends from Tuscaloosa. I had gone from seeing familiar faces every day to not

seeing them in over a month. On top of this all they had announced that the University did not

know when I would be able to get back into my dorm and gather my things. Although facetime

was still an option, it was not the same as talking and doing just the simple things with my

friends, like riding in the car and listening to music. Being the social person that I am, I am not

completely sure how long I can spend in the house without the contact of someone other than my

immediate family. It became so serious that we even stopped going over to my grandparents’

house for Sunday dinner which had been a tradition as long as I can remember. All of these

things began to really get me down, not to mention on top of the stress from being out of my

environment, I now was forced to be self-motivated to do my work and watch online lectures

which are not the easiest thing to do when you have Biology and Chemistry at the same time.

So many different aspects of my life had been impacted by this pandemic. My sorority

events for my first semester were being cut short because since the University of Alabama was

shut down so was all organizations and Greek life. My new friends that I had made were now

miles away from me. Just when I thought that there was no way that the pandemic could impact

me anymore, I was given probably the most disappointing news in my first year as a college

student. Bama Bound New Student Orientation was moved online. My heart ached. What was
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going to be the best summer spent with the best people was now going to consist of zoom calls.

There would be no staying up late with my Avanti family in the dorms, no meetings of new

students as they experience what could have been their first steps on campus, and most

importantly all of the memories that I looked forward to would not happen. Not only was I upset

but I was frustrated. Why did this have to happen? Why could they not just move the orientation

back a month or so? Although I knew deep down that this was the right decision for the

incoming families and Orientation leaders, that did not mean that it hurt any less. If they moved

it back then they would be forced to rush and get all of the students in a short period of time, not

to mention the fact that no one really knows when this is actually going to end. This really hit me

hard, I missed my people and now I was stuck here for just that much longer.

Although I am deeply upset about this experience being different, I was also extremely

grateful for the memories I did make. I realized that I had to look at the positive side of things in

order to keep my hopes up and not let this pandemic take my happiest away. Now that I am

going to be home, I will get to spend more time with friends from home and family, if this

pandemic ever ends. I will get to teach vacation bible school at my home church, something that

I have done for the past few years, which would not have been an option if I went back to

Tuscaloosa for the summer. My friends from Tuscaloosa and I stay in contact the best that we

can through technology and some of which even have made plans to meet up when this is all said

and done. So overall this pandemic has ruined many things, and we will all be happy when it is

said and done. But I think that it also has taught us to slow down a little bit and spend that quality

time with our loved ones. It has taught us to not take advantage of those everyday things that we

are so used to doing like just riding in a car with friends or going out to a restaurant to eat.