“How did you react to the email?” I remember asking multiple friends the day the evacuation notice became a reality for the College, to be met with emotional responses. I personally did not fully know how to react (who did, after all?), other than feel hopelessly surreal to find myself saying awkward goodbyes to close friends. I began that day by sleeping in, although I briefly stirred myself awake sometime in the early afternoon and checked my phone. Exhausted, I recall glancing at the message app with quivering, semi-open eyes, before letting my consciousness drowsily sink back into dreamland, wondering whether I really just saw my mom’s text that asked when to schedule the plane flight home. I figured I was not processing the message correctly, hardly suspecting that quarantine has now entered my life.

So much has changed as a result of the quarantine. Most notably, life has lost some flexibility, some degrees of freedom. On campus, when it was stressfully late at night and I was having difficulty on the task at hand, I used to nonchalantly take a long stroll through the Yard in the chilly Cambridge breeze. On campus, if I needed a change in the atmosphere, I simply packed up my stuff in Lamont and walked to the Law School Library or Science Center. At home under present circumstances, those moments are hard to realize, and I have found myself more easily becoming mentally or intellectually exhausted. This is only compounded by the sense of emptiness on seeing friends log off after collaboration for problem sets, their screen simply disappearing with a high-pitched beep, a reminder that we now live in different time zones.

Nonetheless, I am still passionate about my studies and regularly communicate with close friends. I have also started playing ping pong with my brother almost daily and learned that spinning the ball properly takes so much practice. In the end, the best I can do is hope for the best, that the virus subsides quicker than expected. I remain hopeful for the fall semester on campus.