Coronavirus... the perspective of a third year uni student

Its hard to describe what it feels like for your whole life to change in the space of 24 hours but that's what happened to me and millions of other final year uni students all over the county on the 16th March. 

We knew corona was bad, we knew uni would most likely be closing very soon, however none of thought it would be this bad. We're all in shock and its really hard to get your head around the fact that in the space of a few days, from when you thought everything was going to be okay, that you're packing your bags, saying goodbye to your friends, leaving the house and the city that you've called home for years and not knowing when you might return. 

All of this without a real goodbye, it was so sudden that three amazing years could come to a halt in the most abrupt way possible, in a way that we could have never imagined.

The Varsity events were the first thing to get called off, then one by one each event, each part of our lives, everything we've been looking forward to and planning for...cancelled. Uni staff went home, buildings closed and everything became a ghost town within hours.

Thousands of final year students and university staff are left wondering what now? What does this mean for the courses we've just spend 3 years working hard for, 3 years that we've worked up 60k worth of debt for. What does this mean for our graduation and even looking for jobs? Many of us are left thinking, what's the real point?

​Its disheartening that in the daily government speeches, they have never once mentioned university students and what this means for them, only what it means for school students, it really adds to the anxiety.

Hopefully in the future this will teach all of us to appreciate the little things like being able to go out with your friends in the evenings, to be around family, to have food on the shelves in supermarkets, to smile at strangers in the streets and even to make conversation.

These are scary and damaging times. Stay safe everyone, wash your hands, stay indoors and keep healthy.

Lots of love xxx