Q: Now that you take your classes online, what is your typical school day like?

Well right now, my school just started on Monday so they use Canvas for all of our assignments and stuff. The teachers will assign emails saying ‘you have a Zoom meeting’, and they emailed us syllabi basically saying that we have to keep up and stay on track with that and just to email them if we have questions. They sent us their office hours so that's basically how they're doing it.

Q: Since you're getting all these emails from your professors, has it been overwhelming just getting so many?

Yeah because they didn't send them gradually, they sent them all this past weekend and sent them this morning. I just started getting all these emails and I had to star them so I could remember and keep them at the top of my inbox.

Q: I can imagine that getting all of these emails builds up over time.

It wasn't even over time though, it was like over the span of 2 days. I started just getting like 10 emails and I was like what is all of this and it was like here's a syllabus, read this, read that, we're going to have a Zoom this day. Yeah, it was overwhelming.

"Sometimes I fear I’ll forget something because now that I'm in college, it's my responsibility to keep organized. So I need to make sure constantly that I have everything written down for me to remember cuz I can't rely on a teacher to remind me. Sometimes I just feel like ‘what if I forget something’, so I always need to double or triple check."

Q: Is it difficult for you to organize all of this even though it's just the beginning of the semester?

Well, I'm still trying to get the hang of it because I bought a planner and I'm trying to write it all out. On the web format we use, there's a calendar that shows when you have a Zoom appointment and plans when you have class assignments. But I'm still trying to organize it so I'm working through it.

Q: Are there any fears you have as far as your organization goes?

Yeah like sometimes I fear I’ll forget something because now that I'm in college, it's my responsibility to keep organized. So I need to make sure constantly that I have everything written down for me to remember cuz I can't rely on a teacher to remind me. Sometimes I just feel like ‘what if I forget something’, so I always need to double or triple check.

Q: Have you felt overall that you're independent in this whole process?

Well yeah, kind of because the thing about me is that I'm pretty independent and I don't really know how to ask questions or ask for help. So even though my teachers say they’ll give us office hours, I just don't reach out a lot. I'd rather try to figure it out myself before asking questions. Being online is just more of me doing things on my own.

Q: Have you had any lectures so far?

Not yet because it's the first week so it's just been going over syllabi and stuff.

Q: Was that engaging for you?

It was engaging, but not as engaging because it's online and there are so many people in the class and on Zoom at the same time. You can't really ask professors any questions and if you ask questions, you save it at the end or go to office hours.

Q: Are you intimidated at all connecting with your classmates since you don’t really know who your classmates are?

Yeah, so some teachers will be like ‘keep your camera screens on for the first 5 minutes so I can make sure your attendance is here, then after you can take your screen off’ so that makes people take their screens off. It's hard to be engaging with other students, but then other teachers like one of my professors found a way to try and get us engaged. One of our assignments is for us to introduce ourselves like a discussion board and share some things about ourselves and that's kind of getting us engaged, but we're still not really looking at each other face-to-face.

Q: Are you hoping you can meet some classmates through the discussion board?

Yeah, I really am because I feel like an integral part of college is meeting new people and I'm not sure how I'm going to do that. My school has said many things about getting campus involvement even though the campus isn't open, so they're doing virtual clubs online. Yeah, I'm really hoping to meet new people.

"I feel like an integral part of college is meeting new people and I'm not sure how I'm going to do that."

Q: Are you interested at all in connecting with your classmates?

I'm naturally a shy person so if it was in-person, I would feel more shy, but on the computer, I'm kind of less shy. I'm at home and I'm comfortable but there is still a sense of shyness because I don't know how to make online friendships because technically that's what it is. Like joining a club at school, it's all virtual, so I feel like I'm going to have difficulty trying to connect with others.

Q: Did online learning help take away some of that anxiety you have?

Yes definitely. That was one benefit I saw from this. Like, thank God because I get a lot of anxiety and I get really shy with stuff like public speaking and first day of school icebreakers. This was one of the benefits I saw from that. It's kind of weird, but I just found it to be a really big plus for me even though there are a lot of things that aren't that great about my situation. This is just one thing that I enjoy.

Q: Now that you're in college and have to do it all from home, does that get stressful at all?

Not really. I'm kind of okay with it because I've always studied at home and enjoyed doing homework at home because it's kind of my safe space where I can focus. I could never do things in a study group setting or if I went to a study group with friends, I would just always end up getting really distracted. I'm already naturally used to studying at home so it's not really that much of a big change to me.