Since the start of the presumed end of the world last spring, college students have seen a great deal of change to their lives, including the coursework to end the semester. While it is nice to get out of bed and wear PJs for class to meet virtually, it was a learning curve that many students are still facing to this day, almost a calendar year later. Most students were given a new way of learning with Zoom, a software that allows for telecommuting through your computer or phone.

It was new and different for most, but now it’s at the point where students have a cabin-fever-type-of-feel where you’re actually excited for in-person class. Meeting each week this way has taken a toll on students, and many are excited for it to end.

Grasping the lesson by a professor is even more difficult if one is forced to watch them on a computer screen. The mind wonders. One finds oneself losing that grip on attention. And don’t even try answering a question: you’ll find yourself talking at the exact same time as your classmates. That’s 2020 (and 2021) for you.

Some professors require students’ cameras on their computer be turned on and the students to sit in a quiet place without any interactions. That’s not easy with a new baby who cries every 30 minutes for food. She’s even kicked me to my own bedroom for my weekly classes.

Many dread class times, meeting over Zoom. Picture meeting three times a week from 6 to 9 p.m. That’s nine hours a week stuck in front of a computer. Three hours a class isn’t fun for anyone. Many professors take pity on students, though, letting them out early on occasion but still, it’s a lot to deal with for anyone.

Consider getting home from work on most days and having less than an hour to scarf down whatever can be found in the fridge and gathering oneself together for class until 9 p.m. that night. It gets to the point where one almost doesn’t want to do the classes anymore, but close to the end of the semester, it’s time for soldiering on.

Most classes require participating nightly to earn full points for the semester and for their class. But like many students, it’s becoming harder of late to do that. All are tired and ready for actual human interaction with others. It’s a strange thing, being human. We were at the point before all of this where we tried to avoid conversations with others. Now, we would do anything to see and talk to someone else (socially distanced, of course).

Summer is only a few weeks away, and being eagerly looked forward to for college students to return to classrooms from Zoom meetings.