With the recent tentative but progressive steps announced by the government to ease out of lockdown by the end of June, we are hopeful that there’s a clear path ahead for getting us all back to a little bit of normality.
The Unilife team has been thinking about some of the positives that we’ll take away from these last 12 months. Looking through our Unilife social media posts – we have captured some memorable moments when we could come together, remotely or in our community buildings, and carried on loving the Uni-life!
Our Wednesdays, workouts with Kim have kept us on our toes, Frank’s famous Friday quiz has kept our minds ticking and spirits very high. We’ve even managed to mark and celebrate every traditional festive occasion in the calendar, from Valentine’s Day and World Vegan Day to Halloween and Christmas, finding new innovative ways to socialise online while respecting the restrictions. In some ways, these annual celebrations have been extra special this year, as we truly valued them breaking up the ordinary routine when nothing much was going on.
Many of you have tried new things and taken up hobbies and new challenges – we’ve seen some of you throwing on your trainers and headphones and heading out for a run for the first time! Baking and cooking has been an excellent way for some of you to spend your extra time indoors. The odours wafting through our corridors of sweet baked treats and exotic concoctions have been mouth-watering!
Our students’ response to the challenges of home and studio learning has also been exceptional. Many of you have told us that our studios have proved to be perfect for quarantining, privacy and online lectures! You’ve quickly adapted to virtual learning and swapping face to face to mostly online communications for so many days and for day to day activities such as fitness classes.
Demonstrating resilience and accepting change are essential personal qualities that will help bolster you with any future career choices you make.
Physical contact with large numbers of people and wider friends and family has been limited throughout the last year. We have seen that our students have spent a lot more quality time together, and new long-term friendships have blossomed. In our locations, the communal areas have remained a hub of social activity and really important spaces for conversation and relaxation, helping maintain our well-being and sense of normality, as we’ve allowed residents to form support bubbles in order to keep their sense of community.
So, as we start to think about plans for the next few months, we will keep in mind that this period has been rich in kindness, community spirit, checking with on friends and family, fun online meet-ups, creativity and some excellent box-set binge-watching.
Let’s be thankful for the good times and look forward to what the rest of this year has in store for us all.
Please share your insight about positives that have come out of the last year for you and use #unilifestudent, we would love to hear about your experience!
