Mental health check-up with students & staff

Rosalia Murphy (romurphy@ursinus.edu)

Many students arrived on campus this spring with the hope that the spread of the COVID-19 virus could be maintained as it was last semester. With the recent outbreaks, some students have been left more stressed.

Sophomore Abby Ferguson, talks about how she initially adjusted to being back at school: “I have just tried to focus on what I can control and try to maintain that mentality, because obviously with COVID there is a lot out of my control so just making sure we stay safe and stay as active as we can is my thing now that we have been back at school.” Trying to maintain a life that seems somewhat normal, while staying as safe as possible, is the best way Ferguson knows to adjust to being back. 

Another sophomore, Charlotte Driver, explains what she has been doing to adjust as smoothly as possible back into school, “This time around, I have done an okay job at adjusting. It was a little easier because I knew what to expect, but it is still hard not to think about how much of a normal semester we are actually missing, in regard to activities on campus and learning on campus.” 

Now, having adjusted to being back, students are seeing the number of COVID-19 cases on campus rise. Driver explains this is adding to her stress level: “There is so much more that goes into it, like watching where I am going, who I am around. I am doing all my homework in one space and I cannot go around people. It is stressful because it is a pandemic. It is getting more intense and more serious as it gets closer, but people seem to care less and less.” While everyone on campus is getting tested weekly, this does not take away from the obvious, which is that the virus is spreading so fast, and students do not necessarily understand why. Ferguson says the spike in positive cases has been a struggle for her as well: “It is adding stress, with more people getting it there is more stress to make sure that I do not get it and monitoring who I am around.” 

With students getting more and more nervous about COVID as more of the campus is exposed, how do they try to maintain a positive and healthy mindset? The common theme seems to be sticking to what used to be “normal.” “I am going to continue to try and stay active, swim with my teammates who are my family unit, and keep my routine to make sure that I am on top of my work. I also will try and get outside of my room to find safe workplaces, so I am not stuck in the same room all day and also continuing to work at admissions and the pool as well as having a normal meal and sleep schedule,” states Driver. She is not the only one who feels this way, “Definitely staying active and hopefully looking forward to doing small but safely organized team bonding things like we did last semester. Just trying to hold onto the little bit of normalcy that we might have,” concludes Ferguson. 

As COVID is still very much with us we hope that everyone stays masked up, safe and healthy. Go Bears!