Buff’s focusing on the positives

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Ceasar Escalante

Dorm living during a pandemic has it’s positives.

With everything going on in the world right now with COVID-19, it may seem easy to always look on the bad side of this situation. However, some students living in the dorms on campus of West Texas A&M University have been able to find some positives when adjusting to this uncommon situation.

“As far as maintenance, having people who are here to make sure that everything is as sterilized as it could be. And just trying to keep everybody as safe as they can. Is really comforting,” said Mia Davis, sophomore biology pre-vet major.

A sterilized and clean space to study and rest could be seen as uplifting during these times of uncertainty and thanks to the custodial staff they are giving students a certain peace of mind knowing that the building they are calling home is clean and upkeep.

“The positive for me would just be that I feel like I have more free time now. I can’t really use my time as I please necessarily, but without having to go everywhere. I have a lot more time to, you know, work on homework and stuff like that,” said Kali Dennis, junior english major.

More time in the dorms could mean more time to dedicate to studies knowing that projects, assignments and tests do not stop because of the circumstance unfolding. But perhaps being in the dorm will give students more time to raise those grades and finish strong for this semester.

“In the light of the immense amount of negatives, there are some positives, I guess, like, people can learn to take health measures and that, we take a lot of things for granted. Like being able to go to class and see your peers hang out in the [Jack B. Kelley Student Center] and have Chick-fil-A. It’s, I guess, an eye opener,” said Ustina Guirguis, sophomore animal science major.

It is the little things that some students on campus miss, being able to see a packed JBK center and rushing to go get Chick-Fil-A before the line gets too long. Seeing your fellow students roaming the campus has now turned to what can be seen as a ghost town perhaps for the ones still living in the dorms and having to live a “normal” university life for the rest of the semester but some are not losing motivation during these times.

“I think, um, when you kind of are incapped in four walls for so long you just start to gain motivation and want to get everything that you have to get done kind of finished and so I like to try and keep myself out of my room as much as I can to keep myself occupied with my schoolwork at the same time,” Davis said.

While these times can be uncertain and easy to dwell on the negatives surrounding this situation perhaps it can be good to look at the positive angle of this situation just as these students still living in the dorms have done. Remember that this time will pass for us and there is hope in every situation.