March 13th marks the one year anniversary of UHart’s shutdown at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. On that morning, I visited University Commons and spoke to a student body in disarray that had just received news campus was closing. Initially, we believed that this would lead to an extended spring break. In reality, we were in for the longest summer of our lives.

This March 13th, I decided to take a trip down memory lane, and gave students an opportunity to reflect on the ways in which our lives have changed throughout the pandemic now that we have an entire semester of COVID regulations under our belt. While in Commons I interacted with a variety of freshmen, upperclassmen, and even members of university staff

Unlike last March 13th, this visit painted a relatively optimistic view of the near future. We’ve come a long way since then, and with vaccine distribution skyrocketing it’s safe to say that things are actually starting to look up.