Written by: Holly Dodd, Staff Writer
Note: This article contains discussions of death and loss, which may be sensitive to some readers. If you would like to read another piece, go to our other articles here.
March 13, 2020. TTS students received an email confirming that, like many universities all across the country, DePaul would be closing and classes would move to some app called Zoom. What DePaul students could not have known at that point is that we would spend over a year completing our classes, homework, department meetings, shows, Wrights of Spring, and even graduations online. The ongoing pandemic has left the community with a sense of loss, which the class of 2022 knows better than anyone. Their time at The Theatre School can largely be defined by this experience. It’s one that only the class of 2022 can fully understand, and they have a lot of thoughts on the matter.
The shift from normal life to our current state was sudden and sharp. It’s rare to find someone who doesn’t remember where they were when they got the email. Acting major Anne Shook describes the moment as one of sorrow.
“I was in a movement studio… somebody checked their email, and they were like ‘we’re online.’ And then the whole class stopped because with that email also came the news that shows were canceled.”
The world seemed to stop in that moment.
Costume Design major Finnegan Chu recounts her experience receiving that email:
“I remember finding out that all of the shows were canceled, and I was sitting in there with another person in the same major, who was a year above me. We were working on wigs and we got that email and just thought, `I guess we don’t need to work on these anymore.’”
In an instant, the halls of TTS – once filled with voice exercises, costume racks, theoretical debates and laughter – were now empty, abandoned, with only unfinished wigs to take up the space.
DePaul sends another equally shocking email. With a virus that no one understood at the time barreling through the country, on-campus housing became a huge safety concern. When you have a large amount of people in one building it is nearly impossible to stop the spread due to having friends over, going out, and even passing people in the hall. In a manner of days, DePaul residents were expected to find last minute living accommodations with no place to store their things and no travel assistance.
Theatre Arts major Jordan Kost lived in the upperclassmen apartments at the time.
“At first it was pretty definite, 'you’re gonna be fine, you’re gonna stay here.' Then I got another message about 4 hours later that said I had 48 hours to move.”
Kost, along with many students, returned home to live with their parents. This called for a large adjustment as students learned how to live with parents again, losing some of the independence that is natural for their age.
As we adjusted to our new lives, we all coped in different ways. Some of us took up knitting, others TikTok dances, some ventured into whipped coffee. Others turned to the outdoors. Kost described how long walks in California nature improved their mental health. Chu used their free time to make some extra money at a time when employment was at an all-time low.
“I ended up doing some art for people, I ended up repairing a quilt for someone, and just getting creative with what I felt safe doing without putting it out into the world.”
For others, the pandemic felt far less constricting. Shook stayed in her hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina, somewhere with far less COVID restrictions.
“I would wear my mask in public spaces, but I wasn’t as responsible as I should have been. I knew that sitting in a restaurant was wrong, but it was this really weird mindfuck of what is the right way to act.”
Everyone has had their own relationship with this pandemic and reacted in different ways. We have worked to protect ourselves and our communities, which has meant giving up school, birthdays, holidays, and the chance to say goodbye to loved ones.
Our community was hit hard by the loss of loved ones. We did not just lose those people, we lost the traditional ways in which we grieve. Chu describes her grandfather’s funeral in January of 2021:
“After I came back from his funeral, I was worried I would bring something back to the people I live with. I thought I should be focused on grieving. It was a very surreal experience.”
After all this, DePaul students were sent back to school for in-person classes, performances, and in just a matter of time seniors will soon share one memorable in-person experience: Graduation. While past graduating classes had to go without a commencement ceremony, this year’s graduates are set to be the first to have an in-person ceremony since the class of 2019. For some, what used to be a celebratory rite of passage has become yet another hurdle for seniors to get through in order to leave the bubble of academia behind.
When asked about what it would mean for them to graduate over Zoom, all three seniors I interviewed shared the same sentiment: More than anything, they care about getting graduation over with and moving on with their lives. Being pulled away from their peers and classes so suddenly leaves scars and there is no doubt that this year’s graduation ceremony will be tinted by the past two years. Graduation is a momentous occasion in anyone’s life. Many students might feel excited and celebratory. However, it is hard to blame any seniors for a sense of apathy they may feel when thinking about the whirlwind of time, people, and spaces they have lost.
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