BWW Blog: Zooming Back to NYU Tisch - Year 2

Going back to school has always been a challenge for me. It is the complete change of lifestyle from the summer and always hits me in a different way. This year was different. I have just started classes at NYU Tisch as a sophomore in the New Studio on Broadway. Coming back to college is a weird thing, even if we weren't in a pandemic. There is the "ah we're back!" moments of adrenaline but then you quickly fall into the pace and feel like you never left. You don't have to go through the uncomfortable icebreakers in trying to make friends. I am with my tribe, the only new people that really are on my radar and new teachers and the NSBabies (the freshmen).

But we are in a pandemic, of course. Instead of running and jumping into my friends arms, I see them over Zoom and we have to awkwardly smile so wide and jump up and down in our seats. It isn't the return we pictured and hoped would happen, back in March. But still, we are here and back.

Something I didn't realize I would deal with was the adrenaline crash. It isn't like high school where you pretty much know how the days are going to go. There isn't that expectant return and sigh of frustration I so often felt on the first days of high school. I still can't believe I'm in college so returning still gives me those butterflies in "ah this is really happening oh my goodness". What I didn't expect was falling back into the rhythm, the same routine as last year. Here I am in a completely different environment over zoom, a completely different person than who I was even in March, but yet I am back here again.

We have some new teachers this year which is very exciting. I get the chance to be seen by other faculty members and get new eyes on me. It is strange being surrounded by some of the people I trust most in the world, and still having to introduce ourselves to new adults. In acting, I have a new teacher this year but my acting group = lifelong friends. We all know so much about each other that honestly, we can't not be friends at this point. We had to go around the zoom and introduce ourselves to the teacher. It was a little strange hearing some of the same intros as last year, but it also gave me the chance to learn more things about these amazing humans. The only word I can describe Zoom university is just...it's confusing. I am back with my tribe again and that is glorious. I now also have something to do other than rewatch Grey's Anatomy. But at the end of the day, you turn off your camera and you're alone. One of my favorite parts of a studio day was leaving the Tisch building with my friends, all exhausted and starving for dinner but together, a sense of community. I can't go meet my friends for dinner to talk about what crazy thing happened in class today because while some are 6 blocks away and I can't see them, others are on the other side of the country.

It isn't the return to school that I had dreamed about, running through Washington Square park and tackling my closest friends to the ground in screams. But we are making it work. This is my community and my people. I am so grateful to be back at school, even if we are all online. (Tisch Drama is completely online while other parts of the university are still open). We are also starting to normalize the pandemic and its relationship to our education. In March, we let a lot of things slide because hey, the entire world changed in pretty much less than a month. But now, we are actively looking for ways to improve our experiences with zoom and are working with the faculty to truly help us get the education we all deserve. It all really is going to be okay. We all just have to be safe and VOTE and be nice. I just hope my neighbors below me won't mind my tap dancing. Wish me luck, I think I'll need it.

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