Looking through the photos I took this year, I definitely feel very fortunate to be in the situation I am in. Obviously, the pandemic is not an ideal circumstance for anybody, but I have had lots of opportunities leading up to it, and my family has the capability of staying safe in a tolerable home environment.

I think others can relate when I say that I did not really anticipate the pandemic to last as long as it will. Even when I read about how it would last for as long as a year, at the time, my mind just did not process what that really meant. I was expecting to move back to Maryland, and I was making plans to room with my friend on campus. All of those expectations fell through, of course. I think this has really shown me how precious the time we have at the moment is, even outside of the pandemic. It makes me wonder what my life would be like if I did not take a gap year and had a half normal freshman year. I do not think I would change my experience if I had the choice, though.

I do worry about how my communities and the whole world will heal from this time. While things are looking up with the vaccine, I cannot help but think that something will go wrong and the situation will not clear up on schedule. This year has been wrought with terrible surprises, as we all know. It actually annoys me a bit that we attribute this bad luck to 2020, however. Things like racism are not new phenomenon, it has and will be an issue outside of 2020. I hope that constant change will still be prevalent past this year as well. In the end, the best I can do is try to help my community while achieving my personal goals.

Having my first year of college online and across the globe was certainly not what I expected. Leading up to this year, I was very nervous about coming to college. I am fortunate that online school has not been a huge burden on me, and in a lot of ways, I am thankful that it turned out like this. I think having this virtual year has given me a chance to ease into college.

I am also glad that I participated in the Scholars program along the way. I was worried at first because I wondered if I made a bad choice choosing Media, Self, and Society because I am not going into journalism. I found that there were plenty of people like me and the topics we go over are not as specific to that area as I expected. I also enjoy that my peers in this class are much more willing to engage with each other than in my other normal classes. There is a weird camera shyness that has overcome many of us in these virtual classes, so it is nice to speak to fellow students that chose to participate in this program much more willingly than the typical courses.

Photo Essay

This is the last assignment we completed in the Fall 2020 semester, a photo essay about our experiences.

February 27, 2020

When COVID-19 was really starting to emerge prominently, I was volunteering at Wiesbaden Elementary School (then Hainerberg Elementary School). The music teacher wanted me to help start a mural near her classroom, so I took a picture of the one on the first floor as a reference. I remember talking to her about how the virus was starting to get serious, and soon enough, this school closed down as well, and my time there was cut short.

August 24, 2020

While I was not super enthusiastic about traveling during the pandemic, my parents wanted to make the most of our time in Germany and visit a few more local places when we had the chance. In the middle of Berlin we stumbled upon this monument called the Pavillon der Einheit (Pavilion of Unity). It symbolizes the German reunification and a hope for a peaceful reunification of North and South Korea in the future. Living in Germany, we have had a harder time finding Korean food and ingredients that we are used to buying easily in Maryland, so the last place I expected to find a Korean monument was Berlin. It was a pleasant and touching surprise, and it felt like a connection to "home," even though I was born and raised in Maryland.

$11

October 28, 2020

I am definitely a homebody, so being cooped up during the pandemic has not taken a huge toll on me. But, I am quite thankful that I get to have this view outside of the front apartment windows. Living in the city has been a new experience for my family, and while the sounds of people shouting and constant church bells can sometimes get old, it is much more interesting than the suburbs back in Maryland.

November 17, 2020

Animal Crossing: New Horizons released right as many countries started locking down in March, and as a result sales skyrocketed past all initial expectations. Since then, it has been a regular way to interact with my good friend. In fact, this is how we celebrated her birthday together at the end of November.

$12

November 17, 2020

This building's lights are visible through my bedroom window when it's dark. When I first joined my parents here, my dad told me that they shut the sign off at a certain time each night. With the time difference between here and UMD, I have come to do my school work in the latter half of the day, and I have come to learn that it turns off at 11:45 pm. Even though this year is very different, this has been a strange source of normalcy.

November 26, 2020

I have always liked to bake on occasion, and with lots of other people baking and cooking in quarantine, I was inspired to bake bread a few times. Yeast was surprisingly (or unsurprisingly) difficult to find earlier this year since everyone was starting to bake at home. I am glad this has been a popular activity this year, because I think baking bread does not have to be as complicated as many people may expect it to be.

$12

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Photo Essay