Nobody will ever forget that email. The dreaded notification that popped into every cell phone and laptop of every Indiana University Student extending spring break to two weeks.
As everyone knows now, nobody would be returning to campus from spring break 2020. In the days following President McRobbie’s email, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated, forcing academic institutions around the globe to move their students online.
Shelby Hodge was trying to enjoy her second semester as an IU Hoosier; she was studying, making friends, and finding her place on campus. Then she had the rug pulled out from underneath her.
“Getting sent home changed me even more. I was like, who am I if I don’t have these people? Who am I if I don’t have in-person classes? Who am I if I don’t get to become a part of the group that I was a part of?” she said, listing the tough questions she asked herself after leaving Bloomington.
Shelby Hodge tells the story of how she felt after learning that she wouldn’t be returning to Indiana University following the outbreak of COVID-19.
Like the rest of the student body, Hodge was forced to adapt to a new learning style. After a lifetime of looking forward to the freedom that living away from home during college can provide, students were instructed to move back in with their parents.
The world felt dark and suffocated, business closures and deaths consumed the media, leading many into a state of depression, wondering if there was hope for a return to some semblance of normal.
Hoosiers are now a year removed from McRobbie’s email. Last year’s seniors may never have the opportunity to recoup what they lost, but a quick survey of town should motivate current and future students into believing that a bright future looms over the horizon.
While there are more empty storefronts downtown than were there a year prior, new business-like Blooming Thai and Trap Mike’s have forced their way through the cracks of the pandemic and have brought new life to the city’s hospitality industry.
Campus is once again bursting with masked tour guides dragging awestruck parents and apathetic students along campus tours. Even March Madness, which was cancelled in its entirety this time last year, has been made possible for the 2021 season and is being hosted in IU’s Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
Indiana University and President McRobbie announced that students can also look forward to a return to mostly in- operations resuming in the fall.
Like nearly all of Indiana, Monroe county, where Bloomington is located, has been downgraded to a “blue” concern level, indicating that community spread and total cases are low and decreasing.
The overall outlook about the future of the Indiana University college experience continues to improve and attitudes have hitched a ride alongside them.
Will Wilson, a sophomore at IU and member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity believes that progress concerning the vaccine will continue to improve and that students should remain optimistic.
“Now that the vaccine is getting so much progress, we’ll probably be out of it sooner than we know,” he said. “I have faith.”
