COVID Life Update

Things are...not so hot. It feels like everything that could possibly go wrong is going so very wrong. I'm overwhelmed with my classes, sports, my jobs, and my personal life. The saddest part is I'm not the only person feeling like everything is falling apart. The entire world is scared and there's nothing we can do about it.

I took 5 classes this semester and all of them except one transitioned to online lectures. Unfortunately, the one that didn't was one of my favourite courses I've taken in my 2 years at Temple. (shoutout to Chelsea Reed and her brand new Sounds of a Revolution course) It seems that the hardest classes for me are my Honors GenEds and Japanese 1. I honestly couldn't tell you how what were supposed to be my easiest classes became the hardest, but struggling with being taught a foreign language at the beginner level was completely expected.

This year, I was recommended by a professor to attend the Eastern Communication Association conference on April 3rd this year, but it was canceled due to the virus. It feels like everything I was looking forward to is being taken away from me. Not to mention I applied for an internship that was recommended by my department (Communication & Social Influence), but I haven't heard back yet and I'm getting worried it may be canceled too.

Ultimate frisbee was incredible, but also cut way too short. We only played one tournament and I was looking forward to the next one so much. I wasn't into sports as a kid at all, and my parents "forced" me into piano instead of soccer or baseball like the other kids in my neighbourhood. Somehow, I ended up falling in love with two in high school on my own. I miss Net Night every Friday and seeing all of my friends at volleyball and I miss throwing with the best team I've ever been a part of. TUF (Temple Ultimate Frisbee) was one of the most welcoming communities I have ever had the joy of belonging to and I'm so sad to have had to leave each other so soon. I have been working out every single day since March 30, with the exception of when I got dumped, and the routine has made me happy to have something constant, stable, and controllable in my life. 10/10 highly recommend.

Aside from working out at home, working from home has been a really big change. I have two/three jobs on campus this semester, and while I love being busy, there's just so much going on. My first job with Klein Global Opportunities, the study abroad office for the Klein College of Media and Communication, is one of the best jobs I could have asked for. It's probably not hard to guess that things went completely south after COVID-19 grew and grew. All of our summer programs were canceled. My chance to go to LA and explore children's media as a future career this upcoming summer was taken away from me and 15 other students. The disappointment our students and staff have been experiencing is immeasurable and it really freaking sucks.

My second/third job is with the Student Success Center as both a Conversation Partner (CP_ for English and French learners as well as their Social Media content creator. I had been excited at the opportunity to tutor students online when I was abroad in Tokyo, but I never imagined it would happen this way. On the bright side, I was the first ever CP to host a foreign language tutoring session on Zoom and it felt so amazing. This is another job I would absolutely do for free. I got the social media role right before Spring Break and I was so bummed all of our content had to change because of the virus. However, I've been able to create some awesome content to keep students engaged during this crazy period and I love the challenge of having to think outside the box to keep things interesting.

As for my personal life, well, I'm going through a breakup. With the same person twice. There are so many emotions around this, but overall it's awful. The silver lining though is that I know who my true friends are and I'm so glad to have such strong amazing people supporting me through this for a second time. This whole experience with a global pandemic has truly showed me who the strongest people are in my life and how strong I can be myself.

Oh, I almost forgot–I finally got my acceptance to spending a full academic year in Tokyo next year. I just hope I can still do it. Trying to keep my fingers crossed and head up.

So...yeah. That's what going on with me lately. At this point, it feels like things can/should only go up from here, and that's what matters the most. Even though this blog is really for me to document the more significant parts of my life, I hope maybe this can give hope to anyone else feeling this way or similarly that you aren't alone.