You’re doing it, you’re getting it done and you’re doing great. I am so very proud of this community for pushing through this *waves at everything around me* peculiar time of ours. We have two days until the end of the spring 2020 semester and I could not be more ecstatic with our results over these obstacles. 

Students learned to further their education through an online platform. 

Parents learned to tolerate their children being home once again or, for parents of young ones, learned to be a teacher. I cannot imagine how difficult it must be to have a young child at home and have to take over their education. You truly are all superheroes. 

Speaking of superheroes of the community, faculty and staff have yet again earned my praise. I wish I could emphasize this enough, but I do not ever think that will be possible.

An adviser of mine found a silly video of a USC professor taking a new and unique approach to the online platforms with a puppet! Although the students were caught off guard to the idea of interacting with a puppet, it’s the effort the students appreciated the most. 

I wish I could hand out an award to each professor on campus for being a community superhero. We are lucky to be able to live in a time where technology allows us to learn at a distance. It is an incredible experience. 

If we did not have technology, imagine this: COVID-19 roars through newsrooms and the government takes the actions it does now. Companies and small businesses alike cooperate with social distancing to the best of their ability. They can post signs dictating their demands of social distancing, but universities do not exactly have that choice. Classes cannot continue, face masks are still sparse and the semester ceases to continue until social distancing and COVID-19 cases continue at a steady decline. But, luckily, that’s not the case. We can still study what we love and the seniors are still able to graduate. Although a multitude of negatives appeared throughout the last seven weeks, these small positives really do matter. 

Thank you for all you have done. 

If you have a favorable memory over the course of the semester you would like to share about a professor, go ahead and send it to [email protected]. 

Although this is the last Happy Journal of the semester, this is not the last Happy Journal of the series! Until states have opened up and social distancing is over, I will continue to post my happy thoughts through the Iowa State Daily. 

Just know, the staff at the Iowa State Daily loves you and appreciates you, especially throughout this last semester. Keep trudging through, folks. We can do this together.