Daily Routine Before and After COVID-19 Andy Bach
My alarm goes off at noon. I frantically throw my blankets aside and jolt awake jumping off the bed to stay awake. I zombie walk to the bathroom as I get ready within 5 minutes. I run down the hallway to catch the elevator 5 minutes before the shuttle normally takes off for campus, and of course, it stops at every subsequent floor from the sixth floor. As I breathe in the pollen-filled air, bask in the vitamin D, and mingle with friends on the shuttle and on the way to class, I am fully awake and ready to tackle the rest of the day. I finally arrive in this huge lecture hall, SGM124, 5 minutes early surrounded by students on the same pre-health track as me chatting away. The volume increases as students pile in. I sit at my usual seat, take out my laptop, pull up the slides previously posted, and my notebook to write down or draw up notes that otherwise can't be done as swiftly on my laptop. Footsteps down the stairs to the front of the lecture hall can be heard, and upon his first “Hello,” everyone falls silent. The air around me is tense, influencing me to remain focused on what the professor is teaching so I don't fall behind on the materials nor fail the next exam. Everyone is focused. Everyone is frantically taking notes or asking clarification questions. An hour passes by like the wind and my slides are full of clarification summaries and color-coordinated highlights of key concepts, my notebook is filled with important mechanisms and molecules, and my brain is fried from confusion. I walk out chatting away with friends, getting my daily fill of laughs, strolling leisurely back towards the shuttle stop back home, and mentally drained but physically awake. As the shuttle reaches its destination and its doors reopen, I return home receiving texts from friends to grab dinner together, to attend a gathering, and to mingle away. After finishing whatever homework and partial review of materials I have to do for the week, I attend almost every gathering with my friends. My days would be filled with daily human interactions to a point where I needed breaks in between them. And the cycle continues...
Post-COVID19 (Weeks 10-15):
I wake up 5 minutes before class starts, turn on my laptop, sign into Blackboard, log in to Zoom Meeting, and mute myself and turn off my video. As I'm awaiting entrance in the waiting room, I brush my teeth and get ready in the morning. I have no sense of urgency to brush my teeth nor to get ready as I just woke up, so I spend however long in the bathroom lollygagging with AirPods in. I pull up the slides previously posted to Blackboard. My Safari is opened because of Blackboard and now, I feel the urge to check my texts and emails. I open iMessage, Facebook messenger, and check my Gmail. As the professor is lecturing in the background, my attention is elsewhere but on the lecture. Moments later, I check back on Zoom and notice the class has already finished, and I'm the only one left in the Zoom. "Oh well," I tell myself, "the lecture was recorded anyways, time to go back to sleep!" I wake up in hunger, the sun is already set, my phone is bombarded with notifications, and I have no motivation to start homework or rewatching the recorded lectures. Deadlines become a suggestion for me. "Due tomorrow do tomorrow" becomes a repetitive slogan I follow. Procrastination becomes a habit. I spend my days binge-watching seasons upon seasons of Korean dramas, Chinese dramas, anime, other TV shows, and movies instead of studying or finishing homework. I start sleeping at 4am or 5am, waking up at 1pm and filling my stomach with instant ramen and other unhealthy but cheap sustenance. And the cycle continues...
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