On & Off Campus Blog

Is this connection working? Can you hear me? Am I on mute?

For months and months of 2021, we were trapped in quarantine, sick of staring at Zoom screens, with the return to normal becoming less and less likely, as if we had a one-way train ticket with no return. The Zoom-future looked bleak. However, as cases began to decline, and with vaccines on the horizon, hope arrived, and BB&N brought the hybrid learning model to the rescue.

Blue sky, fluffy clouds, light breeze. I'm drinking chilled, fresh-squeezed lemonade and listening to my friends' string quartet play 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' in the courtyard. I'm talking to some peers I hadn't really talked to much before this spring. Why have we never talked before? They're so cool.

Thank you to the seniors for lending their voices to the blog and giving readers a sense for students' lives--on and off campus!

In early March, a group of ten actors and three members of a production crew, all members of the Class of 2021, met in the dark BB&N theater. The renowned stage was deserted, with remnants of last year's Winter Musical--the last production to take place on the stage--still standing. In this odd environment that was a blend of past, present and future, we began to audition for the first in-person BB&N production since early 2020.

Spring has always been my favorite season. The flowers bloom, the free blocks and lunch periods transition to the courtyard, the beaches open, the spike ball nets are brought out, and the temperature always rises in slow increments, reminding me of the summer months that follow. Fittingly, this spring has been no exception, but has also come with the bonuses of vaccinations and early indications that our communities might finally move beyond the pandemic for good. Amidst all of the new relaxed CDC guidelines and excitement, though, it is integral that we all take a moment to reflect on the past year and the lessons we’ve learned.