by Victoria Stavish

Just over a year ago, the world changed. On Thursday, March 12, 2020, the University of Maryland announced that it would begin spring break one day early.

About a week prior, on March 5th, 2020, University System Chancellor Jay Perman had already suggested that institutions within the university test their capacities to move instruction online. Shortly afterwards, the university suspended spring study abroad programs and cancelled study abroad programs for the upcoming summer. Despite these sudden changes, COVID-19 still felt like a far-away problem for many students in that second week of March. 

“I actually remember telling my mom that I didn’t need to pack up a lot in my dorm because we would be back,” said Nyah Stewart, a sophomore majoring in government and politics at UMD. 

Stewart had nearly completed her freshman year when she, like so many others, underestimated the coronavirus. “I was thinking it was going to be like how Ebola was, where it was contained and it went away.”

The reality of the pandemic didn’t set in for Stewart until the summer of 2020. 

“The moment I realized the pandemic would change my life I think was probably around July or June of last year. I think at that time I kind of realized that this wasn’t going to go away like how we all thought it was going to go away. I actually started to get in a quarantine routine, like I got used to living at home and not seeing anyone,” she said. 

Others, like Donna Howard, a Department of Behavioral and Community Health associate professor at UMD found themselves thrust into the reality of the pandemic much sooner. 

“The moment the pandemic became really real was shortly into spring break,” Howard said. “My husband, doggie and I had taken a planned short holiday in Virginia Beach and hoped to spend time walking and communing with nature and the ocean. 

“I heard that states were closing down, and then we got a phone call from my son in New York saying he was leaving his apartment to come home before lockdown took effect. I already knew that spring break was extended, all classes were going online after the break, but the acuity and severity of the outbreak became much more real then,” Howard said.

Howard and her husband headed back shortly after the call, worried they would be prevented from crossing state lines back into Maryland. On that drive, Howard had time to process the potential effects COVID-19 could have on her life as an educator.

“UMD study abroad programs had just been canceled, and my Winter 2021 study abroad to India would likely be canceled, too…which it was. This was also heartbreaking to me as I have been bringing UMD students to India for a public health focused study abroad program for the past 11 years,” Howard said. “Their personal, academic and professional growth and self-discovery on this trip was something so special and meaningful, and now it was canceled.” 

Howard said she is “guardedly optimistic” about Winter 2022 study abroad programs, but said she knows that further cancellation is likely.

Current UMD freshmen were still in high school when shut downs went into effect. 

Naomi Seiler, a current freshman majoring in communications, said she knew that her life was going to change when her high school suddenly canceled school for two weeks. “I was at outdoor track [when the announcement came] and me and my friends were like ‘woah, this is weird.’ My friend drove me home, and in the car, we both started crying and realized this could be the end of our high school experience,” Seiler said.

For Frederica Liu, a freshman astronomy and physics double major, the COVID-19 pandemic became real when former president Donald Trump announced that all international students on student visas whose classes would be mostly online needed to go back to their home country.

“At the time, I knew that all my classes were online for the fall 2020 semester. I started crying, because I thought I was going to be kicked out of this country, and I was very very scared,” Liu said.

“I have been here in the U.S. for almost five years now, four years when this moment happened. I cannot imagine what I could’ve done if I went back to my country. I cannot imagine when I would be able to come back again, to this country where almost all of my friends reside. This moment made me truly realize that COVID is real, and that it is going to impact me personally,” said Liu. 

For some, the severity of the pandemic was apparent when their school shut down. Others did not feel the full weight of the lockdown until months later, well into the summer. But at some point, each and every one had a moment of realization that the pandemic would change our lives for the foreseeable future.

“It was a wave of emotions,” said Seiler, “and I just knew something was going to happen that would change my life.”