Let’s rewind to a year ago, March 10, 2020. Day-to-day life for most people is still normal. Whispers about a disease called coronavirus are spreading. The story is started to be picked up more by big news companies. Some universities in California switched to all online, and in the following days, almost every university in the nation would follow. College basketball had its conference tournaments underway and we began to see sports slowly shut down and get canceled with no re-start day in sight. If you went to school you were soon sent home to finish your classes online, those with jobs were also sent home and we saw a significant number also get laid off.

Now back to the present day, a year later we are hopeful that soon everyone in the United States will be able to be vaccinated. Most students are back at schools taking a mix of hybrid classes, and sports are back in full swing.

Tyler Stokes, a freshman at Quincy University, talked about how life as a student changed in the past year.

“I never expected it (COVID) to continue for this long. I thought at most it would have been a couple of months, I don’t think anyone saw this coming when quarantine started last year. There was definitely an adjustment period with online classes, it took a while to get used to,” Stokes said.

Students at QU have been taking a mix of online and in-person classes. Jaylen Boyd also a freshman at Quincy University talked about how in-person classes were different this year.

“Obviously we knew in-person classes were going to be different than they were in the past. The class sizes aren’t that big so that everyone can spread out in the classroom. Also, there are sanitizing wipes in all the classrooms, you wipe your seat and desk to stop people from spreading germs. I like the in-person classes, I think the other students do too, it’s just nice to get out of your room and see other people,” Boyd said.

For students their day-to-day life has been changed; they do things differently than they ever had before. Charles Callier a senior at Quincy University spoke about what the biggest changes have been for him this last year.

“The mask for sure. That took a long time to get used to remembering to put a mask on before you went to do anything around other people. For a lot of people, this year was the most time they had spent in isolation. That was a weird adjustment to make,” Callier said.

A year ago no one knew what to expect from the Coronavirus, but almost a year after school shutdowns, people losing their jobs, and what seemed like the world coming to a haut; there is finally a light at the end of the tunnel.