On its own, college is known for being a life-changing experience from which students learn numerous personal and life lessons. When you throw a global pandemic into that equation, there are even more things to be learned. Therefore, it is no surprise that I learned a variety of lessons since the start of this semester, such as the importance of not taking any moment for granted and the importance of going with the flow. 

I am sure that many of my classmates can, and will, relate to learning the importance of not taking a single moment for granted this semester. This lesson is one that many college-aged students learn, but typically not until their senior year when they reflect on their college experience. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and our first year of college being cut short, we learned this lesson approximately three years early. We saw how time is a fickle thing, meaning our plans can change rapidly, so it is essential to make the most of every moment we get.

For me, this lesson really hit home because I had many plans that I was looking forward to before we were sent home for the semester. For example, I was looking forward to helping out with the Distinguished Scholars Weekend, traveling to the Pennsylvania Wolf Sanctuary with the Earth, Ocean, and Environment Club, visiting the National Aquarium in Baltimore to meet with UD alumni, and hearing Jane Goodall speak at an event in Philadelphia. Suddenly, as the world turned upside-down, these events and more were canceled, and all my plans went down the drain. By no longer having these plans, I saw how important it was to simply live in the moment. Some of my best memories from the first half of the spring semester were made that way, like when I impulsively decided to have a stranger drive me to Philadelphia to attend the Flower Show, even though I had three major tests coming up that week.

Along these lines, another lesson I learned this semester was the importance of going with the flow. I will fully admit that I am an uptight person and that I always like to feel some sense of control over a situation. Obviously, during a pandemic, very few people have any sense of control, and a nineteen-year-old college girl is certainly not one of them. This showed me how essential it is to simply relax and let things take their course. Surely, some intervention will be needed here and there, but for the most part, there comes a time when you have to let things go. Personally, this is related to my numerous attempts to make plans for internships, jobs, and classes for this summer, but I think the lesson applies to many around the world in the face of the pandemic, as does the lesson about seizing every moment.

-Renea Briner