It’s official. Hannah WILL be returning to Denison University for her senior year. She learned the news last week and is over the moon, knowing she’ll reunite with her friend and begin classes again.
It’s been three months since she was sent home from her study abroad semester Denmark as the world started shutting down to Covid-19. With mourning the loss of her spring semester and the anxiety of wondering what will happen this fall, emotions have run high and low. At least now she can plan.
It sounds as if there has been a tremendous amount of consideration and planning to bring students back to campus. Classes will begin two weeks early to take advantage of the mild weather months for outdoor classes as possible. There will be no fall break, and when she comes home for Thanksgiving, she’ll stay home until the Spring semester begins. Lots of changes in course delivery, classrooms, housing, dining, etc. I’m happy for her – and glad that she’ll have in-person instruction rather than online. Studying solo online pales in comparison to vibrancy of learning among peers and faculty.
A part of me worries. Where we live, many folks aren’t buying that Covid-19 is real – or that we’re somehow not at risk. Very few people wear a mask when out and about. In our county, we’ve been lucky with only three diagnosed cases so far. What happens when you bring students from across the country together?
Rather than worry about the “what ifs,” as we sat on the beach this afternoon, we started a punch list for the next eight weeks of summer before Hannah starts her senior year.
- spend at least one afternoon a week at the beach
- visit the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden
- spend a day at Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor
- enjoy a sunset photo adventure
- a blueberry barrens photo adventure
- take on a crafty summer project
- teach Hannah how to sew and make masks to return to school with
- rehab and paint Hannah’s bike to take back to school
- continue to spruce up the porch – a new happy place
- hike Pigeon Hill again and add a few other hikes to the mix
To be continued!
We are definitely living in a ‘strange’ world now–
I am so happy for Hannah and her future–and I wish her the best summer there and a good fall semester at college!
From when the shut down in mid march started her in Fl we only had a 2-10 increase a day–but the last 2 weeks the counts are climbing rapidly–we had 60 new cases just yesterday (our average has been 35-40 a day for the last two weeks–and for the whole state–highest total yet, 3,822 cases and everyday the cases are now over 3,000–most of these cases are further south of me–but with the way people are traveling–who knows how bad it will get–here yet–I am 72–so am in that high risk group–so I am staying home, period==well as best as I can–I live in an apartment complex of 162 other apartments all under one roof–so to do laundry or go down and get the mail–you run across others–so far though we do have a must wear a mask inside order–but–some don’t get it and don’t wear them except when they walk past the front desk!!!!
ok I have rambled on long enough–do take care–thinking of you, both–luv, di
I guess all we can do is celebrate those who respect others by wearing masks in public space. Stay safe!