This year was heavily shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic. It has definitely been the hardest year of college so far and of my life in general. Isolation really helped me to discover my priorities, who I am, and who I want to be. 

At the beginning of the school year, I was very nervous about online classes, especially physics, along with my roles as an SI leader and a Peer Leader. In all honesty, classes and jobs were not really the difficult part of the year, it was dealing with my anxiety and finding ways to cope with the despair of the pandemic. This, on top of the most important election in our lifetime, put a lot more stress on me than ever imaginable. When the numbers climbed around the holiday season, I essentially shut myself off from everyone, in fear of contracting the disease. I had friends who didn’t care because of our age group, but I was so immensely terrified of the lasting repercussions that I couldn’t bring myself to see my family, my friends, or even leave my room. When I returned home for the summer, I realized I hadn’t seen or hugged my parents since last August and I still have seen very little of my friends since I didn’t get vaccinated until the end of the semester. 

The election was stressful too. I will never forget the feeling that washed over me when hearing the results. I sat in my bed and just sobbed because through all the hopelessness of the last 4 years, and the stress of the pandemic, I finally felt some moment of relief. I found that voter accessibility was an issue I am passionate about and did online volunteering to help make sure voters got registered. I hope to continue striving for voter education and accessibility for my whole life.

As for the pandemic, I started to look more into the realm of public health and all that it entails. I was so in awe with the workers at the CDC doing research, creating informatics, and helping to inform the world about the disease that I am now looking to pursue a career in this sector. I have since changed my career path from medical school, to a masters or PhD in public health, specifically in the realm of environmental health. I think the pandemic opened up doors for me and allowed me to take time to actually envision what I want to do with my life.

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I hope that next year is better. I am excited to get back on campus, and to reconnect with those that I lost touch with. I am excited about my classes, my jobs, and the other opportunities that may open up for me. A year from now, I will be graduating college and starting to apply to programs which is terrifying but so exciting. I cannot wait to see where this next year takes me and I am so thankful for the hardships of the past year for all the lessons I learned.