I cannot say personally that my expectations for this semester were high for any reason. The classes I had were all based around major requirements and Gen-Ed because I had to finish Calculus I before I could register for any of my major courses. I didn't end up with any classes that I found particularly interesting, so my hopes were already not high. This was coupled with the knowledge that all classes were going to be online. With that established, I was not looking forward to my initial college experience being entirely on a computer at my house; something I had already been doing for months, so, as an attempt to change things up, I decided to live on campus. I was hoping that maybe I'd make some friends and get to know the campus better. In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have been so optimistic about my ability to socialize.

First off, I was not well prepared for online classes. When the original lockdown happened, I went several weeks without any assigned work. Once things were assigned though, we had a rule that your grade couldn't drop below what it was when the lockdown started. This didn't end up being a very good environment to get adapeted to online schooling, and that showed when I started classes this semester. I found it very difficult to have a sense of what assignments were due and when without in-person classes. I guess I'm used to at least having some friends who know generally what's going on with the class. I ended up missing several due-dates just because I wasn't really acclimated to the environment yet. Luckily most of my professors and TA's were nice enough to let me do some of them late, but it was still a headache. Next semester I'm definitely going to have to plan ahead a lot more and have all of the syllabi on hand.

CPSG100 wasn't as bad for me as most classes were; mostly because a much smaller amount of assignments were given, so as long as I showed up to class I was fine. In terms of the content, it was mostly what I would expect from a class about climate change. However, the class did address science in general much more than I expected, including topics like logical fallacies and the proper definition and process of science, which I enjoyed. There's not much that I felt the calss was missing aside from the things that would have been done if not for covid. Speaking of which, I struggled with finding online service activities in place of what would have been an in-person group activity.

College life in general was what I had expected for someone like me. It was of course much different than the original vision I had pre-covid, but aside from online classes, it was what I expected. I chose to live on campus specifically because I wanted to meet people, and usually struggle with making new friends. Unfortunately, it backfired. Instead of being forced to learn to socialize with people like I had hoped, I ended up finding few opportunities to socialize even when I was actively looking for them. I had no roommate and was discouraged from being near others, so my dorm, which I spent most of my time in, became a place for self-isolation more than anything else. Eventually a few people from my floor did talk to me, and I ate lunch with them and played games a few times, which was nice, but I never actually made any friends, and since I've gone home I haven't talked to anyone. I assume that if covid wasn't a problem my experience would have been better, but I've definitely proven to myself that I still struggle greatly with making friends. Now that I'm back home, I don't think I'm going back until things are back to normal.

I don't know what to suggest to future students, because I honestly have no idea what my experience would have been without covid. I sincerely hope that by next fall, things are more or less back to normal. The only general advice that could be helpful is to read the syllabus, and to always have it in a convenient spot for all classes, because every professor uses elms differently, and for some it may not be a reliable source.