The coronavirus pandemic that occurred in the middle of our freshman spring semester was nothing that we ever could have expected. What first was a mere cautionary email became a complete college evacuation, in accordance with the anxiety and confusion of the rest of the entire world. Our lives were uprooted, quite literally overnight, and the schedules and mindsets we all had become accustomed to at Davidson were no longer relevant.
I got home after a long stressful week of packing up all my belongings and carting them back, and I found myself feeling absolutely lost. I paced my room like a caged animal, yelled at my family for no reason, and lost motivation to work. I felt like I had lost a piece of myself when I left Davidson.
A large part of my freshman year of college experience I owe to the Humanities class. Not only were we learning about other societies and the way humans work through a theme of revolution, we were living those ideas out physically together through our actions on campus. Through this class (and others), the habits we learned in high school were destroyed, the identities we thought we had invalidated, and the virtues we thought we valued completely transformed. I found myself, in a survey that Professor Denham sent out after all of us were sent home, pouring out my fears. I worried that since all of us were scattered across the nation and the world, we would lose this connection, this collective experience of Humanities. I thought that without physical presence and interaction, there was no way my fellow Humesters and I could know each other anymore.
I don’t know what will happen. As of March 23, several states are in lockdown, the death toll in Italy is the highest its ever been since the pandemic’s momentum started, and the world and our Davidson community waits with bated breath. For what, we do not know exactly. At this point, no one can say if this pandemic will die in the coming summer months, or if it will last another year. There’s no predicting what the timeline for this is.
But as we saw in each professor’s unit, human’s ability to create something from destruction is part of the process of revolution.
I know, amidst all this uncertainty, that joy will come from this pandemic. This experience doesn’t hinder our understanding of each other; it’s enhanced it. I find myself, when I talk to them, feeling an overwhelming sense of love and appreciation for my fellow Humesters. Professors are even more aware of their students’ well beings, all because the Humesters have a space to open about their fears. I understand now the value of human connection amidst this forced isolation. The proximity on campus I took for granted I now know I will never disregard again. When Davidson’s students return, this unusual experience will strengthen our community, creating joy in spaces that might have been hard to initiate before.
Professor Quillen had “Purification” by Barthélémy Toguo, highlighting the inner conflict of man defining his own identity. Professor Robb had the rabbit/duck picture, to alter our perceptions of the world as we know it. Professor Tamura introduced her unit brandishing a picture of swords at the Rwandan border, a grim reminder of fallen humanity. Professor Wills then turned around and gave us the best of human power through the Civil Rights era, with mugshots of Civil Rights leaders to remind us of revolutionaries’ ability to revive human good amidst evil. Professor Bory’s unit brought physical body into our definition of human with Bill T. Jones, and Professor Munger brought human perception with abstract art. Professor Ewington brought in Russian history disguised as national nostalgia, and Professor Denham questioned our ideas of reality with Gerard Richter’s painting simply called Dead. In each unit, each artifact represented the ideas and concepts of each section, encapsulating a different era or field in its own distinct revolutionary process.
So now, at the end of our journey in the Humanities class, this is our artifact. Every revolution depends on a shift in power, and this time it is up to us Humesters to define and represent our experience instead of the professors. After we all left, I and many of my fellow Humesters mailed around a journal, expressing in it our thoughts through whatever artistic medium we wanted, as a way to keep our humanity in check with others amidst all the zoom meetings and electronic interactions. I think it’s a good representation of our longer revolution, i.e., the transition into college and our Humanities experience, and this new radical revolution that changed our perceptions of each other and of our roles as a member of the Davidson community and the greater global community. As the coronavirus situation unfolded, all of us were in denial, afraid of what it would mean if we accepted this virus’ influence on our lives at Davidson. But now we say Sapere Aude– dare to know.
quarantinejournal-2020-04-21-at-6.13.18-PMContributors (in order of pages):
- Gabby Morreale
- Rachael Devecka
- Sadie Blackshear
- Isabel Nowak
- Mary Shandley
- Grant Hearne
- Erin Simard
- Sam Van Horn
- Tomás Quintero
- Julie Moock
- Luna Jerjees
- Emily Ezell
- McNeill Franklin
- Cadie McNaboe
- Jane Berick
- Alec Stimac
- Virginia Adams
- Skylar McVicar
- Sode Smith
- MaryBeth Monaco-Vavrik
- Laura Bullock
- Thomas Baker