Reported Column

As schools across the nation started to close down, students feared for how the rest of their semester was going to play out. Student-athletes were stressed because their seasons we’re being cut short and for some, it could be the last time they’ll ever compete.

Brand Lemek, a senior golfer from Doniphan had her whole life flipped upside down after hearing the news of campus closing and sports being cancelled for the remainder of the spring semester. I mean what senior didn’t feel like they were going to miss so many lasts of their senior year. Most of the seniors are missing proms, time with friends, final times competing in sports, and even graduation.

Lemek has an immune deficiency that causes her to get extremely sick many times throughout the year. She also has a 20% chance to get the same lung disease her grandmother had and died from when she was one years old. Since COVID-19 caused campuses to close, she had to move back home with her parents, and it has been a little hard to adjust for her.

“Just because I’m not really allowed to go out and do anything right now, living at home kind of sucks I’m not going to lie,” said Lemek. “The only thing I can really do now is homework, play video games, and sometimes I just have to sit with myself, which isn’t fun.”

Lemek is one of the many people who struggles with her mental health. When the NCAA announced that spring sports we’re going to be cut short, she was at work and had one of the biggest panic attacks she felt she had ever experienced. This was supposed to be her final chance for her and her team to make it to nationals. They were so close last year and with more hard work and practice they were sure they were going to make it this year.

In the dorms Lemek had her roommates that would constantly support her and be there for her, but since she’s moved home, she’s struggled to keep in contact with every one and adjust to her new quarantine life. She knows her parents support her but knows it can be easier to talk to people your own age rather than your parents.

Along with adjusting to moving back home she has also had to adjust to a fully online course load. Her struggle isn’t with the course load, but more of having to find motivation to want to sit down and do her homework. It seems to be easier to go to class and turn in homework when you have to do it in person because we like to hold ourselves accountable for turning in our homework. At home we can easily get away with saying the internet is down or Canvas isn’t working at the moment.

With no real timeline of when this virus will pass, Lemek and other education majors are unsure if they will be able to student teach in the fall. Without student teaching they don’t fulfill their requirements to graduate which could potentially throw them off their plan to get a full-time teaching position at a school. This quarantine leaves a lot of uncertainty for everyone. We don’t know how long it will last and there’s no way to prepare for it. We just have to take it one day at a time and hopefully keep some of our sanity along the way.

“I really don’t like quarantine life. I understand the concern of people’s safety, but it’s definitely affected my mental health a lot more than being at school did,” said Lemek. “It’s lonelier and even though I know have the chance to FaceTime someone I lose out on that face to face connection that helps lift my mood. When I’m alone for a long period of time, it just gets really hard for me mentally.”