Back To School

They say that time doesn’t stop for anyone nor anything, and boy are they right. What lies ahead will eventually and inevitably come into the current moment, no matter how far away it is, and then pass by us and become history, no matter how long it lasts. Time passing is like watching a video with no pause or stop button. We all run out of time, and no one knows where it all goes. And now, the time of a new start has come. 

Yep, this Monday was the first day of a new semester, which, honestly, had been a long awaited event. The first day of school has always been somewhat dreary for me, because it represents the end of relaxing times and bringing back stressful schedules and convoluted assignments with headache-inducing deadlines. Not traumatizing, but still quite detestable. 

Although, once youre in university, things change. Sure, it’s still annoying that you’re back to worrying about things like assignments, exams, and studying in general, but the overall vibe feels different. For one, there’s the element of freedom. Schedules are less packed, and what you do outside of classes are now your responsibility. Second, you get the opportunity to roam around campus and access all sorts of facilities, including recreational centers and study centers, making your student experience more interesting and enjoyable. 

But the biggest reason is because at the start of a new semester, you get to meet new people. In university, almost everyone is, to a degree, eager to make new friends. Unlike in elementary school, middle school, or high school, no one has time for any bullshit. In university, everyone just wants to come together and study and enjoy the times. So every time a new university semester starts, I harbour a new-found sense of eagerness.

However, this semester’s first day is much more different, all thanks to COVID quarantine. The whole quarantine lasted for 3 years, maybe more than that. And it started in the middle of the latter half of my undergraduate studies. Campus was completely closed, and I was just stuck at home day after day. At first it was relaxing because I could just rest at home and no one could say a thing about it, and I’ve always been used to living a solitary lifestyle. But as days turn into weeks, and weeks turn into months, staying at home went from relaxing to tedious and then flatout obnoxious. 

I literally could not do anything nor go anywhere, and I just felt like my time as an undergraduate student was slipping by, and that I was missing out so much because I could do nothing but being stuck at home. On my last semester prior to my graduation, the quarantine did lift a bit, but only 2 courses were in person, so I still didn’t have much opportunities to go study on campus. However, I was still incredibly grateful that the school finally opened up, and I cherished every moment of my time on campus.

You really don’t know how much you’ve taken something for granted until it’s abruptly taken away from you. 

So yeah, in 2022, I got enrolled to a graduate program, and my life as a university student got extended. Unfortunately, the school I’m attending for had a crucial problem during the fall term. Because it was still amist the quarantine, not only were all classes online only, but there was a really convoluted policy for applying to campus entry.

Get this: for the three days prior to entering the campus, you have to do a COVID test each day for that three-day period, and all three tests must be negative. If you think that sounds troublesome, here’s the twist: each time you do a COVID test must be more than 24 hours prior to the previous one, and the third (which is the last) COVID test must be done within 24 hours before the time of entry. 

And that’s not it. You also need to wait for all the 3 COVID test results to come out, screenshot them, apply for campus entry with those screenshots, and then wait god knows how long for it to get approved. Only then can you finally be granted the permission to step foot onto the campus of the school that you’re literally enrolled in! And if you make a single mistake for the previous steps, you’re forced to delay your entry and start the whole process over.

As if the quarantine didn’t make things hard enough, now you have bullshit policies that require surgically precise timing with multiple COVID tests, pray that nothing fucks over and you don’t get a positive, wait for god knows how long for the application to pass, and then fucking clap your hands, do 30 backflips, stand on one hand while reciting 500 poems backwards and then they finally let you enter the campus.

Well, fortunately, with the start of the new semester, all that bullshit policies have been abolished. Thank the heavens! So, on Monday, I finally got to enter the campus with little difficulties, and I truly got to breathe a fresh, relaxed air of relief. Monday was my second time entering the campus, and I finished setting up everything I needed for accessing pretty much everything on campus. So, I was free to go wherever I wanted to, as long as it’s accessible for students. I truly got the opportunity to take in everything that the campus had to offer, from enhanced studying environment to fun recreation and activity centers.

Those were exactly the kind of exciting feelings I had when I first entered my undergraduate university. I have to say, it’s a good feeling to get back. All the luxuries and services on campus could be accessible to me. And interestingly, Monday was a sunny day, and so the campus feels a lot more welcoming with the bright warm sunlight than it does in winter. I can only imagine how lively the school will get once the weather gets warmer.

Other than a lovely school environment, the campus also has lots of cats wandering around. Most of them aren’t scared of humans, because I walked up to one that was just standing on the grass, and I crouched down to scratch its head, and other than looking at me occassionally, it just let me do my thing. Yep, that’s another thing I’m hoping to do more of in the future. 

I got to meet a few friends I made during the last semester. This was another major source of my excitement because it’s a whole nother experience to socialize in person, now finally the time has come, and I got to say, things went better than I expected. It was fun to catch up on what happened during the vacation, and now, we can share our suffering brought by the lovely curriculum. But hey, you know what they say, two heads are better than one, and two heads make way more than two heads individually create, or something like that.

But other than connecting with friends, I also got to meet new classmates that I never got to interact with before. I've always dealt with issues about socializing with people I didn't know, although things are getting slightly better. Luckily most of my classmates were eager to connect, and just like that, we formed our little social circle, and new friendships are being built, with each and one of us having the common goal of making this semester as fun as possible. Nothing really stood out for the lectures, they were just your average standard lectures, but I did enroll in a handful of subjects that I have high expectations for, so that’s something to look forward. 

Needless to say, day 1 was an absolute success, but what I’m especially excited for what’s next to come, and the first day gave me a good feeling about how things will unfold. New stories are waiting to be written, and only time will tell what’s next.