A Glimpse into a Freshman Pandemic Year

A glimpse into my personal experience as a first year college student going to UCSC.

How did you imagine your college experience to be while in highschool? Was is about what you expected?

Well, college this year blew away all that I expected.

I’ll mainly be referring to my last quarter (third quarter) of my freshman year as thats when the campus mostly opened up and classes were mostly in person. My third quarter I was able to attend my first in person computer science lecture. The lecture was packed to the brim but scanning the room, people were mainly talking to people they came along with while the majority were sitting quietly, or looking at their phone. I have to admit i’m also guilty of only talking to the friends I brought along with me since its something i’m already comfortable with.

Its harder to go outside your comfort bubble when you have been so used to it during the pandemic whether that be an already made friend group or no friend group at all. Even casual browsing of the college reddit you occasionally see post about making friends having not made any all year. I was fortunate enough to have fitted into my fellowship community early on into the school year and had peers to talk and confide in. The pandemic definitely made being sociable 100x harder but only really the initial step of stepping outside your comfort bubble. Many people are open to making friends whether that be in person or over discord and reddit. There were definitely many challenges along the way, but as a result of the pandemic, i’m glad I got to grow as a person and find my community on this campus in a unique way.