May 1, 2020
Goodbye April and hello May! You know what that means?! The finish line is close. For our Nursing and Health Sciences graduates, the finish line has arrived! CONGRATULATIONS!!! We celebrate YOU ALL from across the country. Things are coming sooner than expected and maintaining incredible gratification. As finals approach, I want to take a moment to reflect on my final month of University. Exactly seven weeks ago, I flew back to Burlington from Spring Break in New Orleans, Louisiana. In Senior Spring Part I, I reviewed my transition to a quarantined Senior Spring and explained what Senior Week should have looked like. To get an accurate idea of our reality I reached out to a few members of UVM’s Class of 2020!!! I spoke to five seniors that are quarantining in Burlington! (Note: The following contains some SERIOUS ideas for quarantine activities!)
1. Where are you?
Beth: I’m currently on the front porch of the house I used to live at, on Greene Street.
Dom: I am located in Burlington, Vermont on Hungerford Terrace.
Greg: My apartment in Burlington, Vermont.
Kyle: I’m at my girlfriend, Maddie’s house. I’ve split time between here and my apartment (in Burlington, VT).
Cole: My apartment.
2. What do you do on a normal day? What is your routine?
Beth: I usually wake up probably around 10, a little late. I make avocado toast with an egg and goat cheese every day. *giggles* And then I probably do work for a couple hours. And then I’ll sit at my front porch on Brooks Ave do some more work. And then I’ll try and exercise for at least a little bit!
Dom: It begins by waking up, hanging on my phone in bed, checking on the current social media, seeing if there’s any updates on a vaccine or anything like that. Usually around 11:30-12:00. Eating some breakfast with my roommates, we’ve been doing a lot of eggs and bacon or eggs with sausage and toast. Then I get out my laptop and look and see what work I have to do in the upcoming weeks. I have been working on my portfolio; I’m an education student. We try and get outside and/or do something together and then we kind of disperse and do our own thing. It carries on like that for the rest of the day. We’ve been doing every meal as a house together.
Greg: I wake up, shower, do my work, and then play video games the rest of the day.
Kyle: I’ve slept in until 9:30, which is sleeping in for me. Then I usually have classes online. The business school has online classes on Teams. Then, literally nothing else. Literally.
Cole: It all depends on how much work I have. I wake up around 9:00/10:00 on a good day, shower, come to the house, do some homework. Depending on how nice it is… If it’s not nice, I’ll go back to my apartment and eat and watch some TV. If it’s nice out I’ll probably play on the lawn, place some tennis, or go to virtue field and throw around a football.
3. What does a Saturday night look like for you?
Beth: That involves me and my 5 roommates on Brookes Ave, who are all boys! We bought Wii Sports Resort. So, we play a lot of Wii Golf. A lot of Wii Table Tennis. We are competing on Saturday nights. That’s kind of like a Wii Sports Resort night!
Dom: Saturday nights have been quite… depressing. We’ve been keeping our distance. We’ve also been watching a lot of movies. We finished The Lord of the Rings series. We finished the Harry Potter Series. We watched almost every movie on Netflix. And we also got into Cheaper by the Dozen 1 and 2.
Greg: For me, the days are pretty blended together so there’s no difference between a Saturday night and a Wednesday night.
Kyle: I think that’s when Blacklist is on. They got the new season coming out! We’ve been watching that. I’m at Maddie’s house on Saturday night.
Cole: Cards or Beer Pong. Listening to music and talking. The usual now that the bars are closed and all that.
4. Where and what do you wish you were doing right now?
Beth: I wish I could be seeing all the people that, um, just like, everyone. We had to close our circle so much and be so careful. I’m really missing the camaraderie that Senior Spring was supposed to be and being able to see all the people that we’ve went to school with for the past years.
Dom: Today is Sunday? I wish I was on North Beach with my friends, hanging out. I wish I was able to gather with the rest of my Senior Class so I could have a little more closure on my senior year. Be with all my friends!
Greg: I wish I was still here. But I wish it was just school. And it was Senior Spring. And everyone was here. And we were all having a good time.
Kyle: I wish I was back in Vienna. I think about that way too much. I wish I was playing sports. Competing. I have nothing to do! I’m so bored.
Cole: On a Friday? Probably Einsteins then Sputies. Maybe Lincolns.
5. Last Question: How do you feel about your quarantined Senior Spring?
Beth: It’s obviously so ******. I honestly think that if I was surrounded by different people, I’d be so much more upset. I feel so grateful for the friends that I have right now. Obviously, I wish I could see everyone, but I feel so grateful to have such a close circle of people surrounding me that I’m comfortable with and I can still have fun with, and we try to make the best of it.
Dom: I think a lot of people can agree that it was very devastating that such a tragic time had to come in such an important time in my life. All of the connections I’ve made throughout my four years haven’t been able to, haven’t been able to- there’s no closure on any of those relationships. It’s nice to keep in touch with all those people and see them in person so we can talk about future endeavors and future plans so I can understand where everyone is and where everyone is going. So, I don’t become distant from all my good friends from University of Vermont. Dom Mosca signing off.
Greg: I was pretty okay with it at first. The more and more it’s gone on, the more bored I’ve gotten every day. It’s a bummer that we couldn’t have seen things out the way that they were supposed to go. But, that’s life and there’s always changes to the plan. You gotta roll with the punches and keep on movin’!
Kyle: It sucked. I don’t know what else to say. It sucked.
Cole: It sucks. It really does suck. Senior Spring was pretty much ruined. After Spring Break, it’s been quarantining. We had so many things planned. After this, there are some people I’ll never see again until reunions. It’s crazy. It’s sad.
Basically, this sucks. This is our reality; this is our Senior Spring. Similar to the Class of 2020, it has been incredibly unique. I have always been a firm believer in the bright side. In this case, the bright side is that this is a challenge that our generations will conquer. We will tell our grandchildren about our days in quarantine with our families, friends, and roommates. When I was in college… Ahh, yes. What are your quarantine days looking like? I am a FANTASTIC listener:
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To my Her Campus family, I appreciate you all. I joined Her Campus in the second half of my third year at UVM; I went to one meeting and fell in love! Thank you for listening and HUGE shout out to Beth McKegney, Dominic Mosca, Greg Ginsberg, Kyle Vock, and Cole Paulson! Congratulations to our graduates!
As Professor Travis Reynolds always says, onward!
Jasmina Jusufagić
Edited by Cat Bates