Graduates of the "Mask and Gown" era

 

HPJ – Senior – Human Development and Family Studies Major

“My name is HPJ, I am attending the University of New Hampshire, and I’m a human development and family studies major with two minors, one in child life and one in Spanish. I have always wanted to work in childcare, but I do not know in exactly what capacity, so I'm still trying to figure that out. I have looked into becoming a child life specialist. I have also looked into becoming a child life counselor; I'm not sure which one I prefer because I have not been able to get any experience in either field given COVID-19 and just the not-so-great timing of being a senior during that.

My lack of plans after graduation are affecting me in ways that are difficult to explain because it's almost as though this transitional period from being a college graduate to entering the workforce and trying to find a place to live and everything like that has become much more difficult. There is a lack of opportunities, in particular, becoming a child life specialist it's required that you have a certain number of volunteer hours before doing an internship for a certain number of hours and then sitting for an exam and then becoming a child life specialist. So, in this field with Covid and hospitals not taking volunteers at the moment, that makes it a little bit difficult to gain experience in this area to see whether or not it's something that you're capable of doing or that you enjoy doing. In my case, I don't love hospitals all too much and that's a primary field in which child life specialists work and so I was looking forward to gaining experience to see whether or not I would be capable of getting over my fear of hospitals because the work that I would have been doing would have been so rewarding that it wouldn't have been worth letting that obstacle get in my way. With Covid and hospitals not being able to accept volunteers because of safety issues and everything like that, which is completely understandable, it's a little bit difficult to really know what I want to do right now or what my next step should be. I would say it's definitely created a lack of an understanding of what I want to do, where I want to be and a lack of plans per say. However, the most difficult part about experiencing a pandemic the year I am going to graduate was feeling as though I've missed out on an experience. This is a year in most people's lives that stands out to them as being one of the best and one of the most fun and one of the last ones that you really have before you go into the real world and life becomes more and more difficult. I guess that would be feeling as though there were memories that would have been made, nights out that would have been celebrated and experiences that would have been had if Covid was not going on during that time, but we made the best of what we could. I'm content with my senior year as is.”

MLW – Senior – Environmental Science Major

“Welcome back to my channel – my name is MLW, I go to the University of New Hampshire, I'm in COLSA and so far, my plans after graduation are to find a job, preferably down South and to start working. My major is environmental science, so I have a passion for the environment, I'm not really in any clubs here at UNH, but I just like to do basic stuff - I like to travel, I like to go outside, go on hikes, walks, watch Netflix, and hang out my friends.

COVID-19 sucks to put it blatantly. The hardest thing about it is kind of just coming to terms with the fact that this is not how I envisioned my senior year to go and there's nothing really anybody can do about it. Just accepting that, moving on from it and trying to make the most of the time that I have left; it is more difficult knowing how it would have gone if COVID-19 didn't happen. On top of it all, my roommates and I got Covid. Getting Covid was a very painful and long process, not really physically but mentally it took a lot out of all of us, it took a lot of me. One of my roommates got it first one week, in the second week it spread to our second roommate, the third week it spread to our third roommate and then the fourth week it spread to me. I was in quarantine for all four of those weeks. When our first roommate tested positive, (four out of the five of us) we had to pack up all of our stuff and move to quarantine in Massachusetts to attempt to quarantine away from the first person who had gotten Covid. Then that didn’t end up working and so we were stuck inside for four weeks straight and for one of those weeks I was completely isolated in my own room. When I got it myself, I was just so mentally exhausted and socially deprived. I did not really have symptoms; I just lost my taste and smell for a few days and other than that I felt like I had a head cold for like the first few days. Getting through quarantine I kept repeating what my friend Joseph always says, “it is what is,” end quote, drop mic."

 

HEL – Senior – Occupational Therapy Major

“My name is HEL, I am an Occupational Therapy (OT) major at the University of New Hampshire and I will be continuing my education at the University of New Hampshire for grad school.

Covid affected me right in the beginning. When it started, I was not allowed to go on my level one field work which is like the OT version of an internship or clinical. So, right in the beginning we were not able to go on our level one field work and this was pretty awful because we were really excited that this was going to be like our first ever clinical experience with patients, being in this role, having all this new knowledge, etc. Especially after junior year being one of our hardest years - you learn so much and so getting excited about being able to apply that knowledge, it was really disappointing when that got canceled. Then having online classes, that definitely affected my learning especially being in such a hands on major - not being able to perform in labs and really just trying to figure out the best and safest way to do things. By senior year everything started to get back to normal. I'm very fortunate being in the major that I am because most of my classes were able to safely take place in person. They [the OT Department] were very generous with us, allowing us to either take classes online, or in person, or kind of do a hybrid format, but I really pushed to do in person because that's the best way that I personally learn. So, by senior year I feel like it didn't affect me as much because they did provide us with all necessary PPE – gloves, face shields, masks, hand sanitizer, wipes - all that stuff. Like I said by senior year, it didn't feel like it affected me that much, but it still was definitely there and it's definitely a weird format to work and learn in. When you're working with other people and learning about these hands-on things and feeling like you're in a bubble trying to work with these people - which a lot of it will help with real word world application - but it was definitely a big switch.

I think one of the most difficult things for me was having all of these expectations and plans in my head. I'm a very plan-oriented person and so having this picture perfect, ideal senior year planned out especially with how just like freshman through junior year went - having the same friends, having all of these memories, and seeing how previous seniors were/acted their senior years - having that kind of stripped away was really awful. It did take quite some time for it to sink in and to feel really like OK like this is my reality, I have to deal with it instead of fighting against it and being upset about it. That is what I would say is probably the hardest part for me. Obviously getting COVID-19 was not great either, having to go through quarantines and that whole emotional aspect of it, but I would say dealing with coming to terms with the thought - ‘my senior is not going to look how I wanted it to, but I am still trying to make the best out of it.’ This is my reality, I can't change that and that's helped me as a person just being able to take in things, deal with them and just let them be. I don't know, I think it has definitely made me more grateful for the people that I have in my life, the support system that I have and just being a healthy individual. Obviously being able to survive having Covid and not having these crazy adverse effects, it just makes me more grateful as a person.”

ALMS – Senior – Psychology Major

“My name is ALMS and I attend the University of New Hampshire…my plans after college are…honestly, the only thing I want to do is move to city. I'm done living in the middle of nowhere, like I really enjoy Durham, but I grew up in the middle of nowhere, so I really want to experience city life. It's weird to talk about yourself… I grew up in Germany and coming over here was not a culture shock, but it was very different from what I have experienced in Germany, people over here are just friendlier and way nicer. That’s something that kept me motivated because I was really sad about leaving my family in Germany. Other than that, I love all my friends I've made here, I love my dog that I got last year - she kept me going, and I just love doing things outside, I love working out and I just try to keep myself busy. I am, I would say, a very pessimistic person sometimes, so I try not to sit in my room all day.

In the beginning of quarantine I was pretty bummed out because I honestly wouldn’t have thought it would have lasted this long. Also seeing that my boyfriend didn’t get a graduation last year, I was just like ‘well, it's only going to last through the summer, this is going to be fine,’ but I kind of started living with it and I just went with the flow. It’s not that I enjoy being online for classes, but it helps with daily activities. I feel like I got a lot of my life back together. I think in some respects I used to be all over the place and quarantine actually really helped me get my stuff together and just really focus on other aspects of life that I need to learn and figure out for myself. After graduation, that’s pretty much when adult life starts, and you can't just not have certain aspects of your life not figured out, so I guess that really helped. That is what the pandemic did for me. As a senior in general I would say it sucked because we missed out on a lot of things like homecoming, going out, being with your friends – now that we are all over 21 - but it's the way it is. I think it brought us, our home, all closer together. I think we all learned new things about ourselves and others, especially for me like I've learned so many things about my roommates this past year which was honestly amazing. I feel like it brought us closer I honestly really enjoyed that side of it.”