Diary of a Corona Senior

Talija Tiskus, staff writer|December 7, 2020

Photo credit: Claire Emery

Life as a “corona senior” is scary, dull, and annoyingly stressful.

Wake up, stare at a screen, eat dinner, stare at a screen, go to sleep. Wake up, stare at a screen, eat dinner, stare at a screen, go to sleep. Break for Saturday. Catch up on assignments on Sunday. Wake up, stare at a screen, eat dinner, stare at a screen, go to sleep. 

Life is monotony. The only reason I’m aware of the passage of time is the existential dread of watching the seconds tick by. It’s scary, it’s uncharted territory, and it’s abhorrently dull. My poor, starving brain cells cannot sustain on these breadcrumbs of “intellectual stimulation” much longer. I get it, we’re in a pandemic and this is the way it has to be right now, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling the effects of isolation. 

I don’t know about you all, but I am, to put it simply, sad. My mental stability has been flushed down the proverbial toilet. Ubiquitous assignments and impossible expectations have stripped me of any motivation I had left pre-senior and corona-itis and I’m not sure I’m going to find it in this rabbit hole we all seem to be stuck in. Just when I catch a glimpse of the opening, I am once again dragged into the undertow by some late assignment or less than desirable test score and released into the churning abyss of online public education.        

But wait! There’s more! For a limited time only you get 2 sources of continuous stress for the price of 1! You get to apply for college too!

I swear, if I get ONE more email from a college telling me to submit an application I am going to commit a felony. I know very well Mr. Smith from Vanderbilt wouldn’t even open an application from the likes of me! Why does he have to badger me to do so anyway every single day?!

Anyway, I might be a bit dramatic, but that’s up for interpretation. I am only human after all, and I live for the theatrical display of emotions. This is not a situation any of us particularly want to be in, but here we are. We just have to do our best despite the fact that life right now isn’t necessarily our biggest fan and try to laugh while we’re doing it. 2020 ain’t gonna bring me down, baby!