When I first heard that my school was converting to online learning and having students move out of dorms due to coronavirus, I was shocked and disappointed. I was already on spring break when I heard the news and I had to process the fact that I wouldn’t be able to return to college and its fun activities for the foreseeable future. I couldn’t stand the idea of being stuck in my house staring at a screen for hours on end. But over the past few days. I’ve found some ways to get used to this new reality.

I spent some time cleaning and rearranging my room to adjust a workspace for myself to focus on my classes. In the corner of my room is my desk with an office chair and my Macbook with some notebooks, pens and books. This gives me a quiet, productive space to concentrate on my studies away from the craziness of the media and the distractions of my family. This will also give me a space to understand how online learning will work for my university, as I have never taken an online classes before. Teaching yourself to adjust to these learning changes as much as you can will make the experience of the change less stressful.

During the semester, I have always used daily “to do lists" to figure out what I needed to get done each day, and it’s important to continue this routine while learning from home. It’s easy to get distracted by the luxuries of staying at home and become lazy. But just because physical classes aren’t meeting in person doesn’t mean that classes are stopping, so it’s important to be just as focused and put in as much effort. Regularly check in with your professors and communicate with your classmates as you would in a classroom setting. This will create a worthwhile learning experience as well as a valuable way to spend your time at home.

Most importantly, it is important to take care of your mental health. We may have to engage in social distancing physically, but keep in contact with family, friends and loved electronically as much as possible. If you can, take a walk outside in areas without crowds to get some fresh air. Watch your favorite movies, get into a new show on Netflix, read a book and engage in other hobbies to keep yourself busy. Doing these things will add some joy to your life to get you through the pandemic of the outside world.

Times are really scary right now and changes are happening day by day like we’ve never seen them before. It’s imperative to remain positive and accustom ourselves to this temporary way of life while being safe and taking care of our mental health. If we do this, time will go by fast as necessary precautions are taken to protect us from this virus.

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