Wow, this has been a heck of a semester. I have to say that I have learned so much. Going into this semester, I was excited to be finishing my last semester at the University of Illinois. I had just accepted a promotion at my job, and the first two and a half months in school was cancelled. We attended class on Tuesday, and by Thursday the world was no longer the same. Now, I’m turning this in just having accepted another promotion. My wedding has been postponed, and the same goes for graduation… My heart is broken, but I also have more than a lot of people do in the world.
This semester was incredibly stressful. If they think that the University has a tough workload think about having to take on the workload at home halfway through the semester. It was emotionally and physically draining, and I’m definitely thankful for everything that I was able to complete before the semester went online. Technology played a huge part in being able to continue completing all of my assignments.
When I first heard of the virus, I definitely didn’t think anything of it. I remember hearing all about H1N1 and all sorts of viruses in the past. I remember talking about it with my coworkers the night before all of the closes started happening. None of us were alarmed by it. Some of them cancelled their trips just so they didn’t have to get on a plane with a bunch of strangers, but none of us expected to have to cancel all of our events and parties for the months of March, April and May…
I can’t say how I’ve viewed everything. I think that everything is so confusing right now, and it doesn’t help that everything is being turned into a partisan issue. The biggest thing that brought me through this class was having our group chat. They were there to make me laugh, and it was a platform where we could all support each other because we were all going through the same experience.
I would say that it wasn’t so much about critical thinking. It was more about time management. When I wasn’t going to campus to my classes I really felt like I just wasn’t in school any longer. But, even though school was online, my work vamped up even more. I started working even longer hours, and taking on even more at work. I figured that once I was out of school I would have more time, but that was seemingly not the case.
I’m most proud of the fact that I was able to complete this class while double promoting, planning a wedding, and now planning a postponement ceremony. It hasn’t been easy… My emotions have been on high. This semester I’m most proud of making it through the first show. That was a mess, but we did it. I’ll remember how close I got with everyone in this. Thank you all so much…