By Jaylen Ward
Hello, my name is Jaylen Ward. I am a sophomore at William Peace University. I want to give you an insight into my views on how the school is going for me during a pandemic during one of the craziest yet interesting years.
So the pandemic hit my freshman year at William Peace University around the spring semester. It shocked everyone as some people thought it was not too serious, fake, or even just did not care. The Coronavirus pretty much startled my spring semester and allowed for there to be some pretty big transitions.
The school was not in person anymore, everything transitioned into being online. We used a software called Google Meet to have classes and from there I pretty much have to figure some things out as to how am I going to learn, how assignments will look like, and of course, grades. 
So long story short, the pandemic my spring semester of freshman year actually turned out to be better than my fall semester of freshman year. I say that because the end result was that my grades ended up being better.
Fast forward to my sophomore year at William Peace. At this point I am still a student-athlete; I was ready to be back on campus and get to work as an athlete and somewhat as a student. Covid-19 threw some obstacles in front of basketball for me, but I knew it would.
Fall semester came and I hit the ground running with school but not so much basketball. School for me pretty much felt like the only school; basketball was not anywhere to be found. Classes were enforcing social distancing and masks and that did not startle me.
Most of my classes were hyflex or either in person. Hyflex means that you are online on some days that are specified and other days specified you show up to class. This allowed classes to maintain a socially distanced environment.
So knowing that I am in college during a pandemic, interestingly it allowed me to better myself in ways I never imagined possible. It enhanced things I normally would do as a person and also introduced me to things I should start doing as a person.
For example, my awareness skills increased, it allowed me to seek my purposes of why I am in school and showed me that hobbies like working out and cooking are important. I also made a big improvement in learning how to clean thoroughly.
Fast forward to the year 2021. Covid-19 has not actually left as we thought it would. It seems to not want to leave. Despite this, I am still enrolled at William Peace University for the spring semester and coming to in-person classes.
I can actually say that though it is extremely tough, Covid-19 is just a barrier standing in the way of my path. It’s a barrier that I and others will have to go through for maybe a long time coming, but it is not stopping my focus and end goal, getting my education and graduating in four years with my degree.