Welcome back TLU community! 

A good way to start any new chapter, like a school semester, is to reflect back on how things have been going for you recently. But when a lot of us look back on the last school year- Zoom meetings, health scares, and changing routines- it can be hard to pick out anything positive. It’s hard to look back and not think “if only this hadn’t happened” or “I wish I’d done that”. 

A positive experience that happened to me because of covid is realizing how much I enjoy being around my closest friends and family since I could not be around them during quarantine.

Anonymous Survey Response

Many of us learned from negative experiences over the pandemic. We were more distant physically from loved ones and places. And no one really enjoys wearing a mask, except maybe when it’s cold out.

But can we learn from good things that’ve happened during the pandemic too? Or did anything good happen at all over the last year? 

The Statistics

The TLU student body says yes. When asked what kind of changes COVID brought to their life, 37.5% of students who responded to the survey said that there was some positive experience. Only 5% responded that the last year had been overwhelmingly negative. Many students fell somewhere in the middle. 

[The pandemic] helped me figure out more about myself and what my future goals were.

Like all situations, the pandemic was not black and white. While some things got worse, others improved. 

COVID was a terrible thing but for me it actually made quite a few good things happen for me.

One common thread among survey responders was that quarantine(s) gave them more free time. What we did with that free time varied. I spent a lot of time reading for fun, instead of only scanning textbooks.

Whether you picked up a new hobby (55%), worked on a new subject (32.5%), or just learned more about yourself (Over 85%!), we all took away something new from our time in quarantine.

The Big Lessons

For some, family time increased dramatically and that improved relationships and home life. These survey respondents recognized the unique situations the pandemic put them in when it came to family:

I was able to spend way more time with my family and able to work more which helped my family with tuition. I was also able to help my younger cousins navigate a global pandemic because masks and COVID is all they’ve known, I make sure to remind them this isn’t how things used to be, and stay hopeful that one day it will return to our old “normal”.

I was able to spend a month and a half on a road trip with my sister, we vacationed in Greece and encountered very few crowds. Our family was able to experiment with home made meals. We spent a lot of time playing games and growing closer as a family.

And others reached out to their larger communities and political movements:

When the COVID vaccine first came out and was being distributed to the elderly people of Seguin, I was able to help and give vaccines to them and their families. All of TLU’s nursing students that were qualified to participate were able to do so and we can now say that we helped in trying to get rid of this virus that has changed so many of our lives!

Since there wasn’t much to do during the pandemic my boyfriend and I were looking for fun ideas. We decided we to go to the the animal shelter one weekend. It was fun for us and it was extremely helpful for the shelter. Since then, we have been going pretty regularly on the weekends when we have time.

During COVID-19 the awareness that was brought by the Black Lives Matter movement, brought to light the human rights that we don’t get in the United States. I increasingly became more aware of the changes we should make as humans and I became aware of our biases, and the way the world around us has discriminated many people of color. Learning this made me enraged but becoming aware of such things helped me to learn how I myself could change and how I could inform the world around me on how they could change and help people of color. 

The Takeaway

I think my favorite outcome of this pandemic was how much we learned about ourselves and mental health. In that newfound time from changing routines, people found healthier habits, new lifestyles, and new relationships.

If you’ve read through this whole article thinking “Nah, I hated every minute of it, didn’t learn a thing”, know that is a valid response too. I’m hoping by sharing some positive moments in the community, everyone can feel a little lighter. I know I feel better this semester around the flowers and butterflies of campus instead of the computer screen.

What’s your big takeaway, from these quotes or the past year? Keep the discussion going in the comments!

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