Zoom-of-T Law Round Two?
Winter break has come and gone, leaving a bittersweet aftertaste … at least in my opinion. The sweet comes from the holidays, the snow, the lack of required reading, and the readiness to move from my post-holiday dinner food coma and into the real world once more. But the bitter—all the readings and job applications that I told myself I was going to accomplish over the break, didn’t do, and now need to face—has hit me head-on. On top of all that, there’s the COVID-19 pandemic and online school until February 7.
With the change in learning atmosphere comes a host of new challenges which, as an incoming 1L, I did not need to face up until this point. The worst one for me thus far has been the Zoom fatigue. The amount of caffeine (and snacks) I consume in a day has exponentially increased. While at least some of us dealt with online school in undergrad, the senioritis that came along with it seemed to make it more bearable. However, the winter semester has already taken me by storm and the light at the end of the tunnel—the February 7 return to in-person classes—seems far off. To be blunt, I miss my classmates, the after-class discussions when people bonded over and argued about where we should grab coffee, and even the library (which I thought would be impossible to miss after exam season).
Of course, it would help if we were guaranteed to stay in-person for the rest of the semester, but the air of the unknown still hangs heavy, much like it does in the cramped rooms of my apartment downtown. As a 1L, so much of what I am doing is new, and it sucks to add the semi-likely possibility that we go back online after February 7 to the list of things that consume my seemingly decreasing mental space. I can’t say I pictured my post-undergrad life to include sweatpants at all hours of the day and a lack of social interaction.
In any case, my message to 1Ls is to stay strong. We can handle this new normal, and a little adaptability is good for the soul. However, if people need an extra boost of mental wellness, a good non-legal book usually does the trick for me, possibly coupled with a glass of wine on a weekend evening.
