When I was told I had to leave campus that third week of March, I remember I was in a panic. I cried, I yelled, I didn’t feel like I could breath. I built a life at Iowa State I was proud of, built a home I want to live in forever, built friendships that are stronger than Jack Trice’s bones. It seems silly, now, to think I cried that hard.

Iowa State will always be my home. Sure, I returned to my hometown and slept in a bed I owned for a decade longer than the one in my dorm, but it’s still my home. I especially didn’t want to leave the people. What would I do without them? How am I going to be able to return home when I built a life here? I felt like I was in exile. 

I was very wrong that third week of March. I have rejuvenated friendships I was too busy to cultivate during my school year and branched out more because of the excess time I’ve had. The more I examine how the world and we, as people, have responded to this COVID-19 pandemic, the more I realize how much of a blessing in disguise this all is. The “Happy Journal” series has been a complete way of revealing to myself and to all of you not only how many flaws society has as well as how beautiful it is as well. (Have any of you tried journaling? I can definitely advocate for it.)

I am so grateful I can return to campus with more people, more memories and more appreciation than I had left it. We truly are #CycloneStrong. 

Do any of you remember your initial reactions to the pandemic? The closures? The evacuations from campus? How do you feel about that now? What has positively changed around you? For you? In you? 

Peyton Hamel, sophomore in genetics and English.