“One day I sat down to figure out what day it was – without looking at anything – and I couldn’t do it,” Griffin Cordell, a junior sculpture major at Winthrop University said.
Artists and students alike have been feeling the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic for six months now. Many restrictions have been put in place since the beginning of March, including a strict limitations on social gatherings in many states across the US. These rules not only make it impossible for countless artists, like Cordell, to continue their craft, but for any person to be afforded the opportunity to carry on in their field as they are accustomed. This severely limits the chances for anyone to make and maintain the strong physical and social connections that most rely on in their daily lives.
Cordell said, “There was a point over the summer where I lost my artistic drive, and it’s not that I lost it, it’s that I stepped out of the environment… I wasn’t around anybody.” Students at Winthrop University were not prepared for their spring break to turn into a 2 month-long affair when classes transitioned to online, at–home learning last spring. This sudden change caused not only a physical shock, but a mental and emotional impact on countless students.
Katie Marcelino, a junior musical theatre major, recalls the first months of the pandemic. “It was kind of like a 180 [degree] turn because everything just seemed to be so negative and downhill and… it affected me even more than I think that I realize right now.” She said that the “mental drain” that she experienced from this major life transition carried itself into her physicality. As a performer, she said, she’s used to “constantly moving,” but with the continuation of this odd state of living and the beginning of online learning, she said, “Sometimes I’m like, ‘Am I really doing something?’ I don’t feel it as physically and sometimes that’s a little worrisome.”
In this weird world of online classes, it’s sometimes hard to stay motivated and in the right mindset for the new school year. Alexis Doig, a junior accounting major at Winthrop University, said that, in her usual school year work flow, “…when I’m on campus I’m like, ‘work mode,’ and then when I’m at home I can relax, but now… I have to do both at home, so you have to retrain your brain.”
The struggle for many students is defining the line between school and the rest of life when you are trapped in the same room all day. Marcelino said, “…nothing feels real, I feel like I could float on like a little butterfly and don’t have any responsibility…and I blink and I have an assignment, it’s 9 o’clock and it’s due.”
While it is easy to get lost in the stress of school on top of the state of the world, both Marcelino and Doig advocated for the idea of “accountability buddies,” not only as a reminder of assignments and responsibilities, but also the maintenance of those missing social bonds that we lost in March. Other little things, like making checklists and opening the blinds, have helped students like Doing cope with the ever-changing state of the world. She said, “I try not to beat myself up over the little things.” Taking care of yourself, your health, and your mind is one of the most important factors that we must all stay attentive to.
The beginning of this school year brought about many challenges that face both the student body and the University itself, but it also brings about the opportunity to learn and grow from such an unprecedented situation. Cordell relishes in the fact that he was able to return to campus for this semester and said, “Just being around other people making art makes me so excited… I think I’m so relieved that it feels like the engine is going again, even if it’s going really slow.”
Along the same line, Marcelino said, “I feel much better because we are all in the same boat and I feel like we can connect that way… you’re in college in your twenties and you’re trying to figure out all of this craziness at the same time. I think it says a lot about how strong our generation is.”
