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Birmingham, AL

To be honest, I’m cheating wherever I can just to pass!

South Bend, IN

I do not have a good home environment with very toxic parents and maybe verbal abuse but I don’t really know what counts as that. Therefore whenever I am at home for extended periods of time, it is just horrible for my mental health and I am in so much emotional pain. My older brother found a host family for me initially in Rhode Island, but then they found out they were pregnant and kicked me out. As everyone had already settled into their living situations and it was right after the first week of classes, there weren’t many options so I had to sublease an apartment to make sure I wouldn’t get kicked out again and traveled back to the Notre Dame area. So I’ve been there for the rest of the semester because there would be no way on earth I would be able to do school while living at home. Loneliness and isolation are already having an effect on my mental health, but it would be so much worse if I was at home.

Pullman, WA

I am a student at Washington State University and I am hating life right now. To get by I am writing in a journal and talking to my friend who lives in France. I am also online shopping like crazy and running out of money. I just love the feeling of getting gifts at my door though. It’s unhealthy. But I am trying to get by in my classes and I am dropping two of our four and taking pass/fail on the two I’m staying in just to maintain a decent GPA. I am still going to fail my finance class and that’s rough to know. This is getting to be too much and I want so desperately for things to go back to normal.

New York, NY

I left three chocolate croissants in my oven as I frantically left my apartment in NYC. And there have been articles about rats . . . So once a day I panic over the rotting croissants in my apartment (where I still have to pay an absorbent amount on rent).

New York, NY

I am just struggling with performing at a high level in a suboptimal environment. I live in NYC and I’m in a small apartment with my whole family. I can’t go to the gym or go outside for non essential things. I had COVID and I know people who have it and who’ve died from it. I think many professors have understood this but some can’t fathom why students aren’t performing as well or attending class and this is why.

Zagreb, Croatia

I can’t sleep during the night because of anxiety, so I sometimes oversleep and miss the lecture. Other times I can’t concentrate for the full 3-hour lecture. This all feels overwhelming. 

Birmingham, AL

Before this semester, I had actually taken a gap due to mental health concerns. This semester was meant to be my “reentry” so to speak but I struggled a lot and every day was a battle. My primary motivator was attendance. If I could just get myself into the right classroom at the right time every day, I would be able to scrape by a passing grade. As soon as we switched to online, I lost everything that I’d worked for. There was no reason to do anything and I could hardly feel the consequences. As my As and Bs became failing grades, I felt even more detached from the situation and unmotivated to fix things. And even when I felt like I should catch up, I was already so overwhelmingly behind that it seemed like there was no point. 

Mamaroneck, NY

From the outside I am extremely secure and very lucky for all that I have, but in truth I feel vulnerable to the toxicity of my family environment. I was not planning to live at home ever again to preserve my mental health but this pandemic has necessitated my return home. 

Cincinnati, OH

My motivation is nearly non-existent. I really need a separation between my work space and home space, which I simply cannot have in my 1-bedroom apartment. And I hate meetings on Zoom. It is so weird to look directly at my classmates during class.

Seaside, CA

I loved all my classes before we shifted online, and now I can’t focus or get myself to do the work. It’s not the same because all these classes require active participation and discussions. Our syllabus has been shifted around, certain things are no longer counted, and attendance is not mandatory anymore. I’m just not motivated to do anything. It’s not the same when you can’t discuss in person, and when you don’t have a room of your own to go to for class or work.