25 April 2020
What a strange week it has been, as a student, specifically a History student, I have struggled. We have seen the news covering all possibilities from the support of small businesses, to the support of those in education consisting of teachers, pupils, families. However, from a university perspective I feel as if we have been left to fend for ourselves. It is heartbreaking to see that those in their third years will not be able to celebrate their graduation this year, and it is heartbreaking that my last *potentially* year in higher education has come to an abrupt ending. I have spent a lot of time working on university assignments, knowing that the motivation is not there anymore, and my course lasts until September. I am anxious about results, whether my lecturers will take this into consideration as we have not been told that they will. A dissertation is looming and knowing that I will not be able to work to my full potential breaks my heart, I had trips planned to visit archives.
I have been back at my family home now for a month, we are coping but the stresses of work-life, or lack of work, have affected us. I have not been able to hug or have a conversation with my nan as she is considered as ‘vulnerable’, which again, breaks my heart. There has been a loss in the family in the past couple of days and it’s easy to forget that we are living through an epidemic by focusing on our ‘household’ or keeping ourselves busy, until it hits us close to home.
As a history student, I am finding this quite surreal. The impact of this epidemic will hit us for many years to come and our future generations will learn about this, just as we did for other big historic events such as the Spanish Flu, the Plague. Therefore, there are many people who doubt the importance of History of a subject, I hope this epidemic allows you to learn, to further your knowledge, that we cannot return to ‘normality’, and finally, History does repeat itself.
Lastly, there is hope, this will not last forever, we must consider that the lockdown will ease eventually as long as people continue to follow the rules that have been set by our government.
Dr Kristopher Lovell 