When I turned in my 15-page paper last Saturday, I finished my first semester of grad school!
A common question I received from my friends and family was,
"How was Zoom school?"
Zoom school. Has a funny ring to it.
Basically, Zoom school is learning through periodic, live video sessions.
With at least 15 other students.
For 15 weeks.
First and foremost, I appreciated that my school (even though last minute) decided to shift classes from in-person to online due to the pandemic.
Secondly and strangely, I really enjoyed distance learning. It allowed me to learn in the comfort of my own home, wear comfy clothes, and WEAR COMFY CLOTHES. Oh yeah, some of my time was returned to me that would have been used towards commuting. Lastly, I saved money! Huzzah!
There were however, some funny and eerie moments of Zoom School. In the beginning, I was hyper focused on making sure I was on mute. There have been many a funny moments where others were caught with mute off, but it's always funnier when it happens to someone else, isn't it? I, personally, enjoyed seeing everyone's puzzled faces as we all try to listen to our professor...who is on mute. A whole minute goes by and I'm thinking I'm just gonna say it: "Professor, you're on mute." We remember that day well.
Next, about halfway through the semester, everything meshed together into a weird, academic ball of slush. Think of this way: you are staring at a screen (of your professor) talking about Subject A. Next class: you are staring at a screen (of your professor) talking about Subject B. Next class...you get the point. It's ALL the same!!! Pretty soon, you're commenting on something you thought the professor said in a previous class, but it was actually another previous class where that comment would have been welcomed. Oops!
There are two notable takeaways from Zoom school. One, being the fact that you are staring at a screen for sooooooo looooooooong. Imagine working your 9-5 (from home) and then hopping on-screen again for an additional three hours, maybe more if you had more than one class. I have never experienced so many eye strain-induced headaches. Not fun.
Second, being that I spent 15 weeks with my classmates. The whole time, on screen. You laugh and you share funny tweets and you bash the president...and you laugh and I laugh and it was all fun and games. You slowly get to know some of them through virtual happy hours and our bonds grew the more pandemic trauma we experienced. Then after finals, you are no longer bound to connect with your colleagues, the ones who you shared laughs with and the ones you grew to know well for only knowing them online.
And you are soon left wondering...
Were those people real?
Did it all really happen?
-Raquel