The complete audio version of this story is available on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, and Spotify.
Act One:
Hannah Krawcyzk, senior in public administration, relied on structure to get through quarantine: the Zoom classes that kept their regular class times, the phone calls she would schedule with her friends and the movie nights she held over FaceTime.
"Having those things really helped in making it feel like we were able to do some of those things that we did before together, even though we are so far away," she said.
Krawcyzk rarely left her apartment during quarantine. The most she did in the Auburn area was grocery shopping.
The thing she said she misses most about normal life on campus is being able to see her support system of friends without the "lingering stress of 'Are we going to be okay? Is it alright to see each other?'"
She misses the day to day things, like being able to call a friend and get coffee or work on a class project. She misses the ease of being able to see people.
Returning in the fall doesn't mean the anxiety will be gone, Krawcyzk said. She will be unmasked at home, but her time with friends will be six feet away and masked.
"I have high risk friends," she said. "I have people who can't afford to be sick. I don't want to put anyone in danger."
Act Two:
Before leaving for spring break, Anna Ickes, senior in elementary education, hugged the second graders she had been teaching three days a week goodbye. She didn't expect it would be her final goodbye to them, as Auburn's campus and her practicum shut down over spring break.
"I never really got to say goodbye to them for real," Ickes said. "So that was hard. It was hard not being able to say goodbye to a lot of people."
Ickes is a fifth-year senior and will be graduating in December, but her last semester will be spent in an internship in a fourth grade class. She likely won't be on campus at all this fall.
The place she missed the most is Coffee Cat, where she would study, make lesson plans and hang out with people in her cohort.
"It's sad that I don't quite feel comfortable spending a large amount of time here," Ickes said. "I don't want to be typing for a couple hours with a mask on, so now i have to stay home."
Now, Coffee Cat's layout has changed. Its tables and chairs are pushed to the walls and distanced apart. For Ickes, who has to be extremely careful so she doesn't contract the novel coronavirus and spread it to her students and supervising teacher, her last experiences at the coffee shop will likely be limited to takeout.
Act Three:
Eli Getman, senior in computer science and mathematics, spends a lot of his time playing the tabletop game Dungeons and Dragons. While he was sheltering in place at his family's house over the spring and summer, he played the game virtually.
Getman said he missed playing the game with other people face-to-face. It was something he knew he would miss once campus initially shut down.
Other things, however, he didn't expect he would miss, like getting a haircut, walking to his classes and Chick-fil-A.
"It's one of my favorite places on campus, not going to lie," Getman said.
Soon after classes start, the Tabletop Gaming Club, which he serves as president, will have rooms available to play Dungeons & Dragons in-person. It'll likely be the first time he's played his campaigns face-to-face in months.
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Trice Brown, junior in english language arts education, is the enterprise editor of The Auburn Plainsman.
trice@auburn.edu
