Tomorrow

In-person classes commence tomorrow, as our 10-day quarantine ended this weekend. I'm struck by how much time has passed since I've been in a classroom with people. This evening during our dorm meeting, we literally addressed the process of returning to class in person, something we would have never talked about in previous years. There's now a new need to prepare backpacks early, to charge computers the night before, to leave the dorm 10 minutes earlier to walk to the classroom, to wake up an hour earlier to get breakfast. All of these habitual actions that have been ingrained in us for years seem to have disappeared during the pandemic. Readjusting to in-person classes will certainly be something on my mind for the next few days and I will need to plan out my days better to accommodate walking times. 

But when I think back on my experience as a remote student this past year, which is no insignificant amount of time, I'm amazed by how the pandemic has thrown out the window everything we knew as students and simplified life. Gone are the days where I would schedule my day so that I managed to log onto my computer 2 minutes before class started. Gone are the days where I could eat lunch whenever I pleased because I was constantly at home. But I'm excited that life is returning to some sense of normalcy and where school days are blocked out as class time, sports, and study hours. 

And more strikingly, this is my last term at Andover. My last term as a high schooler. After quarantine on Friday, I was able to spend a lot of time walking around campus. I noticed that when I walk through campus, it appears different and new ideas burst through my mind. It's not just school work, tests, and social events that bog me down, but rather, savoring my last moments on this campus as a student, my last moments as a high schooler, and the fact that I'll be departing from this place that I've grown so familiar with over the last four years. Something I've realized during my four years is that I've rarely stopped to capture the beauty of the campus. I'm not sure whether being a remote student for an entire year has helped me appreciate campus more or whether the pull comes more from reconciling with my last term as a student. However, there are certain "views" or angles of campus that I've particularly enjoyed over my four years. Perhaps not even a view, just a particular juxtaposition of buildings and landscape that exudes a warm, happy, and grandiose sense in me when I walk by. For my last couple of weeks as a student at Andover, I'm going to spend some time capturing photos around campus when I walk by places that elicit this positive, peaceful feeling.