Receiving confirmation of my successful college application was not a grand celebration, nor was it accompanied by any fanfare, interviews or phone calls. It came in the form of a simple letter in a white embossed envelope. Due to lockdown measures, I was unable to physically celebrate with anyone, so I raised a glass of wine to the occasion alone on my balcony overlooking the park.
Like many students who commenced their college studies in July 2020, the bulk of my degree was undertaken under COVID conditions. I finished my studies in March 2023, just as things began to open up. Despite the pandemic being declared over worldwide, this graduating class enters the workforce with a unique set of skills resulting from unprecedented conditions.
My first-year courses were completely online, including orientation week. The presenters shared stories of how they met their lifelong partners and friends during their time in college. Unfortunately, I wasn’t even able to see my classmates’ profile pictures. In our Zoom sessions, we had to keep our cameras off to prevent the screen from freezing, and most of the time, I found myself staring at gray boxes. Week after week, I sat at my manual stand-up desk in my spare room, watching hastily-cobbled-together pre-recorded lectures and live-streamed tutorials on my laptop. This wasn’t the college experience I had envisioned when I started at the age of 42.
My degree was meant to be an on-campus experience, but the pandemic forced mandatory online learning, removing my choice of study mode. The group and environmental cues I rely on in a classroom setting were also absent. Although online learning isn’t new, courses designed for virtual delivery have effective systems to support students. COVID conditions required lecturers to quickly adapt the content they were used to teaching in-person to an online format, using unfamiliar platforms. We lost valuable time figuring out how to work the system at the expense of the knowledge and practical activities we were there for.
I expected invigorating debates that would spark ideas and strengthen or alter my viewpoint. However, it’s hard to have a vigorous conversation when the bandwidth only supports one person speaking at a time. I imagined myself hanging out with my classmates in the library, sharing the creative energy generated by our ideas while we worked on our assignments. Unfortunately, social distancing destroyed that vibe.
As a writing student, I was lucky that my courses didn’t require hands-on experience. However, some of my friends studying nursing, dentistry and exercise physiology struggled to learn anatomy and course procedures from books and demonstration videos, while their specialized labs and workshops remained dormant.
After eight months, we were told that some in-person classes would resume on campus. Having studied only remotely, transitioning to in-person classes was stressful, abrupt, and jarring. At home, I had everything set up for my comfort: drinks and snacks, two monitors, background music, and effective temperature control. I could pause and rewind videos whenever necessary. Live tutorials didn’t have that luxury.
Although I craved social connections with my peers, being around them was a struggle. While I enjoyed the interaction that being back on campus provided, there was an underlying unease that was hard to ignore. Masks were uncomfortable, made conversations challenging, and served as a physical reminder of the unknown. The uncertainty was mentally and emotionally draining.
A few on-campus events occurred under strictly enforced conditions after the first year. I volunteered with the Student Guild to help staff them and met most of my college friends through this avenue. None of them were studying for the same degree as I was. I feel like I missed the chance to make more friends due to the lockdowns. As a first-time college attendee, it’s difficult to imagine what my experience could have been. I envisioned more parties, movie nights, and random celebrations where I could meet people from different backgrounds. I imagined lunch or coffee-time discussions, as well as complaining about assignments. If they were still functioning, there might have been opportunities for internships and projects to help me develop my skill set. Despite my struggles, I was fortunate to have a strong support network of friends outside of college. Knowing that I had suffered from depression, panic attacks, and anxiety in the past, I shared this with them and asked them to check in with me occasionally. These checks helped to keep me grounded and provided a break from academia.
The pandemic pushed me to grow in ways I never imagined. I have always been an extrovert, thriving on social interaction and connecting with others. However, with lockdowns and social-distancing measures in place, I had to confront my internal struggles on my own. Asking for help when I was struggling was the only way I could get through this unprecedented time. Since I was always striving for the illusion of perfection, this was a hard lesson to learn. Very few people have been spared the opportunity to learn how to manage and adapt to change in the last few years. Higher education students who started or continued to study under COVID conditions also faced the added pressure of doing it in an unpredictable environment while attempting to train for future roles. I believe that this will set us apart from other generations.
Those students who were able to adapt to change, were resourceful and persevered with their coursework are better equipped to succeed. Those who can repurpose their pandemic experience into tangible abilities that employers seek, such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration, will have a competitive edge. An article in the Higher Education Quarterly reports that the uneven recovery of global economies and industries post-COVID significantly affects graduates’ negative career outlook. Despite feeling qualified for the jobs they applied for, over two-thirds of the 2,871 survey respondents admitted struggling with job prospects after graduation because of the pandemic.
My experiences are similar; however, my degree provides me with freelancing opportunities. Nevertheless, the skills I developed have equipped me to deal with uncertainty. The consistent changes we experienced as we entered and exited various lockdown periods built resilience, critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration skills. These skills are also highly valued in any workplace.
Although I may never have the experience of sitting in a lecture theater surrounded by hundreds of other students or engaging in the on-campus activities that were available pre-COVID, I believe that resilience and adaptability are survival skills that will serve me and every pandemic graduate in the future.
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