Editor’s note: This is part of a contributed collection of students and faculty experience with COVID-19.

Hailey Allen was thrilled to experience her last memories as a Cyclone this semester. Due to COVID-19, the semester was cut short and her closing moments as a senior vanished. Greek week, graduation commencement and many more events were canceled. 

“The biggest change for me is the changes affecting greek life,” Allen said. “What I was disappointed about was the cancellation of greek week, mostly all spring philanthropies and lip sync performances. Now not having that as a part of my college career, I don’t have that part of me anymore.”

This was the last year for her to experience Iowa State’s greek community as a greek student. It varies for every chapter, but Kappa Delta seniors attend greek week together and reminisce on the past years. 

During the middle of spring break, she first heard graduation was canceled. No longer would she walk, and neither would her parents witness their first child graduate from college. However, her mother reminded her she knows she worked hard and walking across the stage wouldn’t prove that. 

“A happy realization is not everything is as important as you may make it out to be at the time,” Allen said. “With graduation, it’s a milestone but who really remembers their long graduation and you get one second of fame.” 

As for her last semester with TREND magazine, she said she wanted to end on a high note. 

“I was really looking forward to the TREND magazine release,” Allen said. “This was my first year as a copy editor and I feel like we worked really hard and I felt like it was in a good place to be one of the better ones.”

Looking for a job upon graduation has been difficult for her, especially since the pandemic occurred.

“Some magazines aren’t hiring because the first thing people do in a time of crisis is cancel their magazine subscriptions,” Allen said. 

In the grand scheme of things, she said she realized she will still have a degree at the end and the pandemic won’t ruin our lives forever.