Being a Student during COVID-19 Pandemic

The Coronavirus outbreak has deeply affected so many elements of our lives. There have been compulsory social distancing, huge job losses, educational institutes that have shut down their doors, and emptied supermarket shelves. Students around the globe are encountering significant stress as an outcome of the change in how they are taught. Moreover, being a student during the COVID-19, they have a fear of an unstable future.

You may hear much news regarding the effect of the pandemic on student numbers, institution funds, and the general economy, but don’t hear as much from students on how the pandemic has badly affected their life. In this blog, we will discuss how COVID-19 has changed how students live and learn. We have found 3 prime points: precarity, anxiety, and gratitude.

Feeling Precarious

Based on the living of a student and social circumstances, precarity is encountered differently. Financial precarity is seen as students discuss the loss of part-time and casual jobs, with its impact on paying rent, housing instability, and their upcoming housing situations. The sudden dependency on smartphones and the internet signals for social connection and productivity accompanies worries around the trustworthiness and stability of these online links.

The sudden transit to online for a group of students caused many discussions regarding what they have lost by no more being capable of involving in face-to-face meetings, seminars, and tutorials. In this new space, the feeling as a student feels in some ways inclusive but also separated and isolated from their general community and support networks. These concerns brought challenges for many students, where some made their stability with workplaces, timetables, and relationships with their loved ones.

The ‘New Normal’ and Anxiety

Many students are dealing with feeling annoyed, frustrated, and overwhelmed as they accepted the new normal. Since classes shifted online leading to anxiety for some, being homebound and the monotonous routines have caused struggled with self-regulation, maintaining content, and feeling alone from fellow students.

Students are experiencing hurdles in studying while coping with panic-buying, other COVID-19 stresses like grim world updates, and worry about what would happen to them, their family, and friends. As the threat of the Coronavirus spread across the globe, everybody appeared to be at a loss as to how to continue with their daily life and people are at various phases of adapting to their new normal.

Concentrating on Gratitude

Despite the tough conditions of life, students are focusing on gratitude. They are grateful for supportive social networks, technology, natural ambiance, and preferred the flexibility to reestablish their time. Technology is allowing them to maintain support classes and connections to continue.

Offering and getting support from others despite physical distance has made a new sense of social involvement and several students are extremely grateful for nature and outdoor space. Some students are grateful for friends and family. Time acquired through job losses is spent with them and also nature, pets, and friends.

Conclusion

The new reality has changed the experience of being a student during the COVID-19. It has forced students to praise and self-reflect strengths within themselves and others and to grow awareness of their social weaknesses.