An alarm goes off at 9:30 in the morning and I slowly wipe the crust out of my eyes. The sunlight pours into my bedroom, and I slowly roll half my body over in a 180 degree twisting motion so my arm is dangling off the right side of my bed. With my eyes half open, I reach for my phone that’s laying on the ground beeping repeatedly over and over again. I can hear birds chirping outside as I grab my phone and slowly stretch my arms above my head. I have a busy first day of online classes.
That’s right online classes! Which is weird, because I’m not an online student. I’m a senior at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, and like every other student in the nation right now I’m doing the rest of my semesters work online.
As it is my first day of online class, I’m expecting there to be some hiccups. This is the first day of the most radical adjustment period any college student or professor has ever been a part of. If it goes off without a hitch I will be shocked. I stare at myself in the mirror and brush my teeth as I meantly go down the checklist of things that needed to get done today.
Attending classes was the first thing on that list. I had two classes that as of last night were scheduled to happen today. First of which was a check in with one of my classes at 10am. This class, which was not happening at its normal time, was supposed to be a check in. Just a quick test to make sure everyone’s technology was working right. The email about this “check in” specified it would take no more than 10 minutes, which is good because I had another class at 11am.
I ended up being in this “check in” for over an hour. How did that happen? Well first we waited an extra five minutes to see if everyone was going to show up, then someone couldn’t hear the teacher and we waited for them to fix their technical issue before we got started. By the time we actually got started it was 10:15. Thirty five minutes in, I was worried I might need to leave for my other class. When out of the blue I got an email that my next class was canceled due to a technological issue on the teachers end. I was also informed during this “check in” that I would be meeting with my class online at a third of the rate that we had previously had to meet up in person.
I tried not letting any of this bother me. It was day one after all, but I won’t lie when I say that after only two days of online classes I’m already sick of it.
I’m especially sick of the University system that will not be giving me any sort of refund on any of my tuition I paid them this semester. Even though, all on campus resources are closed off to me. Even though, I’m receiving far less of a valuable education than when all my classes were in person. Even though, I paid for one thing and got something completely different. The University is adamant about not giving a refund on tuition.
Imagine you’re out to eat at a restaurant. You order something off the menu. The waiter says some bullshit like “Very good choice sir” and he brings you your meal. Now the meal, it’s a bit pricey for what you’re getting, but you’re starving so you just fucking eat it like the animal you are. Now imagine, you’re halfway through that meal. Your waiter comes over and proceeds to take your plate, and without asking you, pulls down his pants and takes a fat dump right over all your food. After he’s done, he hands you the plate back like nothing happened. He apologizes for the giant shit that’s now on your plate, but he’s still going to have to charge you full price for the meal. Would you go back to that restaurant? Because colleges are that restaurant, and that’s exactly what they’re doing to their students by not giving them a partial refund on their tuition.
Online classes are a joke. And it’s ridiculous that these universities, these “aCAdEmiC iNstITutiOnS”, are to assume that professors, that have never taught an online class before, are expected to deliver the same quality content they teach in a classroom in such a short amount of time. There’s obviously going to be some growing pains, that being said if I’m not getting the product I paid for, why am I paying the same price? Just some food for thought.
After my classes I eat lunch and go for a walk. Why did I go for a walk? Because in every article about what activity you should do during social distancing they tell you to go for a walk. Honestly, it was a bit boring for my taste. Anyway I get back home and check my email to see if there’s anything else I need to do before I end my school work for the day. I set up my schedule for tomorrow and do nothing for a few hours.
Doing nothing might be my favorite activity of all time. What does doing nothing mean to me? Doing nothing isn’t actually doing nothing. It means doing something I enjoy. Surfing around YouTube, watching a movie, napping, playing video games, all of these activity’s fall under my doing nothing category. With this pandemic going on I feel like there’s a lot more time to do nothing.
After doing nothing for a couple hours I make dinner and try to get work done for my internship. I write these articles, I do research, I look at and apply for jobs until I have a panic attack because I feel like a failure. As I slowly calm myself down I’ll go back to doing nothing until I’m tired and fall asleep. I’ve been struggling to fall asleep lately. I’m afraid of what’s happening around the world. I’m afraid of how overnight it seems like everything has changed. I slowly succumb to my body shutting off and a black out into sleep. Then I wake up again and do it the next day.
How have you guys been dealing with the pandemic? Let me know down in the comments.
College student, College student, College Student, College student, College student, College Student,
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