Congratulations to all of you for getting through this special school year! Hope you all crushed your exams and get to enjoy the upcoming summer! From Zoom, Collaborate Ultra and asynchronous lecture videos, this was definitely not your traditional school year. But as we inch closer to summer, it seems we get closer to “normalcy”, whatever that may look like. This pandemic will go down as a keystone event in our lifetimes, and will shape our future for decades to come.
With schools and workplaces adopting virtual learning and work from home possibilities, this pandemic has taught us more than Zoom etiquette and social distancing measures. So as we say goodbye to certain pros and cons of an online environment, let’s hello again to some familiar ones!
- As we say goodbye to waking up 5 minutes before our first class and attending in our pajamas, we say hello again to getting ready in the morning and heading to campus for our morning classes.
- Goodbye Zoom backgrounds of UBC and hello to walking on campus and taking in its beauty throughout the seasons!
- Goodbye connectivity issues and hello transit issues and Vancouver traffic!
- Goodbye awkward breakout rooms and hello awkward tutorial and discussion groups!
- Goodbye awkwardly speaking at the same time as someone else while trying to have a conversation over Zoom and hello to picking up nonverbal speaking cues and having a flowing conversation!
- Goodbye switching from class to class with the click of some buttons, and hello to walking (or sprinting) from Buchanon to CIRS for your next class!
To our first years and other returning students, we hope you say hello to the awesome programs and activities UBC has to offer in the coming years. Whether it be the electric atmospheres of our Varsity games, socializing and making new friends at various club events, crushing case competitions in person with your teams or getting active through UBC Recreation’s intramural leagues and events.
We also hope you say hello to exploring campus and finding your favourite study or hangout spot. Maybe you’ll enjoy studying at our libraries like IKB, Koerner’s or Woodward. Or maybe the study vibes at our cafes like Loafe, Blue Chip, or JJ will speak to you and your friends. When you’re trying to socialize, there are the many spaces in the Nest (including the Gal), the Agora, your undergraduate buildings, restaurants and many more that could meet your needs.
So farewell to seeing you all over a screen! We hope to say hello to all of you when we see your smiling faces in person next year!