Studying during the pandemic: Start chasing the sun
The pandemic has been demanding a great deal from everyone and is constantly forcing us to think anew. How did our students manage to adapt to the new situation? What challenges did they experience and what lessons did they learn? What will remain?
A blog article written by Ellen Hein, IMME student at OVGU.
“My name is Ellen Hein and I’m a 23-year-old student in the IMME program. After working hard to get my bachelor’s degree, I was excited to finally start my master’s program. I could study what I liked most and also try to live a little – or so I thought.
But let’s start with something positive: I know I’m very fortunate to have a sunny balcony as part of my apartment. However, this was the best thing during my master studies, which says a lot! There have been struggles, and not few.
Find your own silver lining!
Like for everyone, getting used to online lectures was hard. Usually, you would go with your friends and are in it together, which helps! But with the online teaching you have to motivate yourself to watch the videos, because no one else will. Maybe I should first say that I am a very structured person and thus had no problems planning when I’ll be doing what. But because so many subjects were taught in the asynchronous way, you could actually watch it whenever you wanted to! So: figure out at which time of the day you are most productive and use this as an advantage! This way, you have time to do what you want when its most sufficient or in my case: Enjoy the sun on the balcony whenever it’s there!
Who would have thought?
What I miss the most are of course my friends and life on OVGU campus. (Who would have thought that I would actually miss the Mensa food one day?) I can’t wait for life to go back to normal and enjoy one or the other cold beverage in the sun. However, I must also state that, because it was not possible to do anything else but study, my academic performance has really kicked off. My master’s degree turned out to be way better than expected. As much as it hurts me to admit: the pandemic helped improving my grades. So maybe even though it is hard to think about everything in a positive way, this entire pandemic will have helped me academically which (hopefully) will lead to a better job.
What else?
After all, the most important take-away for me would be the following: What else? The lockdown started over a year ago and who would have thought that we would still more or less be in it today? So, let me ask the following question: If we have made it so far and fought through this mess and still managed to come out of it somewhat positive, what else can happen? What else could life possibly throw at you that you can’t manage? You made it through a pandemic and still managed to proceed in your studies! Be proud of yourself! Even if it may be hard to find a silver lining sometimes, that fact that you’ve made it so far certainly is one! And why stop now? Start chasing the sun!”
Thank you, Ellen, for sharing your insights with us. What are your thoughts on studying during the pandemic? If you would like to tell your fellow students about it, please contact anika.rosner@ovgu.de.