A daily struggle with seemingly no perfect or correct answer, yet there has to be a unique solution for every individual. The story of a procrastinating student is overused and treacherously boring to a lot of people, but it still exists and Covid has not helped.
One might come to the conclusion that being stuck in a house while being quarantined and having nothing to do would lead to a higher productivity rate within classes, but the struggles within school have only exacerbated the challenges for a lot of people.
Haverhill resident, Kyle McCarthy, stares down poker chips in front of him as his glasses reflect the green of the table. He talks about how he left his college career at Northern Essex Community College a year ago to pursue a career within the electrical trade. “My struggles with online classes and procrastination helped lead me to this decision,” he said. “Without Covid in the equation I am willing to bet that I would have easily gotten through to (an) associate’s degree in business management and possibly furthered my education.” Whether he ends up back in classes down the road is improbable.
Many students have dropped out of college since Covid has entered the scene, but some have left and come back. Gregory Spaulding, a NECCO business major from Haverhill, talking through a headset while playing Madden says, “When everything went to online I was about done with my degree and I just wanted to go back to working in heating and air conditioning, but knowing that a degree in business would help me out later in my trade career, I ended up coming back to finish the job.”
Covid won round one against Spaulding, but there are still 11 more rounds to go in this fight and he seems to have taken the momentum.
There have been plenty of fights with students against Covid that have surpassed the normal two years for a community college.
Some classmates have just fought through the major changes that have happened after the coronavirus took a firm grip on every college.
Another NECCO student from Haverhill, Cameron Stratton, has managed to get through most of his major in psychology while also maintaining a role on the basketball team. He misses a shot on a miniature basketball hoop and grudgingly states, “Things have been all over the place since Covid struck. While juggling everything I just take it one step at a time and keep the finish line in mind.”
Continuing to do sports in college could definitely help keep focus for students and the first step to beating procrastination is focus.
This may be a struggle to many, but there is no definitive number behind this fight as far as a winning or losing battle. A devil’s advocate to this battle of students versus Covid are the people who put their head down and approached the schoolwork as an opportunist. As David Brickley, a successful student from NECCO under a business management major from Haverhill, sits in his chair that has clearly been surrounded by more than two cats, he claims that being on zoom for most of his classes has made it difficult to meet new people. He joined the school during the Covid outbreak and looked to the brighter side of things and said that it gave him adequate time to do his schoolwork as well as keep bonds with his close friends.
During Covid one’s focus can easily change from school to an exposure or actually getting the disease, but as long as you can take it step by step, come back to the work that needs to be done then you can get the degree. No one in this article is completely sure what the future holds for their career and maybe that’s the way it should be. With an undecided future the possibilities are endless and as much as Covid has delayed progress across all parts of the world the students still won.
