How to come together in wake of the coronavirus pandemic
So, it actually happened to us at Azusa Pacific. All classes have been moved online for the rest of the semester, and events have been canceled. We are being kicked out of our own school, “To further safeguard our APU family and act as responsible and caring neighbors,” said President Ferguson in his letter to students.
But it’s not just us. APU was actually a little late to make their decision to revert to online classes. They followed in the footsteps of UCLA, University of Southern California, Loyola Marymount, UC Irvine and UC Riverside, among many others. More schools will soon follow.
I have heard mixed emotions from a lot of my fellow students.
Some expressed how they wanted their classes to be online, and others said that they feel they wouldn’t get the same education in their living room as they would have in their classrooms.
But this is about safety, and caring for those in the community. This feels strange though. How can we really care for those in the community if we can’t physically be with them?
Not only were there questions about whether or not this is the best option, but there were logistical questions about what happens next.
Will students go home? Will we live in fear of going to grocery stores and public spaces?
Will we dissociate and become lonely from a lack of personal interaction?
We can’t let these questions haunt us. Instead we must move forward to support the community, and try to make the best of the situation. Because we are going through something that has never happened before, we must try to observe and learn from the situation. We must try to be on the right side of history.
I posted this on my Instagram last night after professors had been telling us what they were hearing in their meetings concerning the coronavirus:
All students hate school until there’s the possibility of not having it. Sure we could all move to Canada or Mexico, get cheap flights to Paris and inevitably get stuck in quarantine. Or we could use this time of fear to study how society reacts to disasters.
Now that my fears are a reality, I have to have a different mindset. I must have the mindset of making the best of this worldwide panic by embracing the changes being made for us and being respectful of both people and decisions.
We will need to begin using social media and online platforms to encourage and lift others up, because with the limited communication tools we have left, we need to elevate them, instead of living in fear in real life and online.
So tell your family you love them, encourage your classmates to keep working hard even if they aren’t as accountable as before and try and grow in maturity and knowledge from experiencing first hand the effects of the pandemic.