by Tyler English

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic there a thousands of college students across the nation who will not be able to walk across the graduation stage. On the other side of the spectrum, there are just as many new college students who began their college career this year.

Alex Kruger is a first year Mechanical Engineering, soon to be Software Engineering major, he is also the First Year Senator in Student Government (SG).

“A sense of freedom and being out on my own was something that I was really looking forward to when I went to college,” Kruger said.

Kruger, like most first year students, was able to spend his first fall semester on campus, but his first spring semester was cut short due to the pandemic. He recounted when he and his father drove back to RIT from their home in Geneseo to move Kruger out of his dorm mid-March. To him, it all felt too soon.

“A lot of [first year students] still feel like we just got here, I moved out of my dorm room far earlier than most people ever do,” Kruger said.

While graduating seniors must grapple with a shortened college experience, they weren’t the only ones. First year students were excited to brave the college world and all the freedoms that come with it. They were only able to get a taste of the college experience without fully starting it.

Kruger was looking forward to the new social environment of college and to challenging himself to step outside of his comfort zone. He started a new routine of going to the gym, waking up earlier and meeting new people. Now with the shift to off-campus and virtual learning, the college environment has shifted.

“Most of my classes are not on Zoom meetings,” Kruger said. “Which is nice because I can work at my pace, but I have lost a lot of motivation and incentive to get up early and cease the day.”

Kruger finds himself sleeping in more consistently now and sometimes losing track of assignment reminders in emails. When Kruger was in class, it was easier for him to ask the professor or lecturer a question about an assignment and have that in-person reminder, as opposed to searching for emails buried in his inbox.

Despite the difficulties Kruger has faced as a first year college student adjusting to life amidst pandemic, he still remains hopeful and looks to the positives.

While seniors are waiting to say their final goodbyes, first year students still have time together when the pandemic is over.

“I am looking forward to being able to spend time with people in person again,” Kruger said. “That is something that, out of nowhere, felt like it was taken away.”

Kruger did not expect his first year of college to go this way; no students could have predicted to spend the last half of this spring semester online and at home. The taste of freedom that was given to first year students was taken from them too soon yet will be returned when they can return to campus to finish the remainder of their college journey.