2 minute read
The Virtual Lining
The pandemic has been awful, but in some ways I've been able to connect more.
By Andres Leon
Online learning is a nightmare for everyone. Our education relies on shoddy internet connections and our will to attend endless zoom meetings.
Before the pandemic, I was not involved in any campus activities and did not socialize much. My days consisted of attending my classes and driving home immediately after. My social anxiety during in-person classes prevented me from appreciating the like-minded people around me.
There is a virtual silver lining that I have found within this mess. I felt more comfortable in my own skin while in class because I could control how people viewed me. I could take breaks and turn my camera off if I didn't want to be looked at. My confidence roseand I've been taking more initiative to join campus clubs and become more involved.
Class specific Discord servers are a savior for me. They allow me to talk with my classmates about work and keep me on track. Impromptu chats with classmates are easy because of how relaxed Discord server environments are.
I can proudly say now that I've met people that I talk to almost daily. Zoom class interactions are awkward with everyone stepping on each other's toes when they speak, but the virtual backgrounds and filters have been great.
I've taken to downloading around fifty backgrounds that I rotate often during class. I've even made backgrounds where it looks like clones of me are behind my chair, nodding along on loop to everything in class.
The reactions that I've gotten from that have made me near hysterical.It's rewarding to receive private messages over Zoom from people telling me that they appreciate my goofy backgrounds. I imagine that it brightens their days a bit, and in turn that brightens mine. Even if it seems benign, I encourage everyone to engage with their classmates more in and out of class.The great thing with online messaging is that we can take as long as we want to respond to messages which relieves the stress that we feel when having an immediate conversation in person.
This past year has been gray and bleak but within those times there have been granular rays of sunshine from the friends I've made along the way. I would not have met these people if we were still in person.
