We can all admit that time has been passing by weirdly in quarantine. Your afternoon can feel like it’s going slower than the last five minutes of your 10A, but then suddenly it’s Friday and another week has passed. Even with the demarcations of classes and meetings, it can be difficult to keep track of time, and sometimes you wish you never threw out your childhood day-of-the-week underwear. And little is more horrifying than receiving a notification of your weekly screen-time, informing you that you’ve spent an average of eight hours a day on your phone. Although it seems like our lives are stuck in a time warp, time is still passing and things are changing.
This week’s edition of Mirror is titled “Day In, Day Out.” In this issue, we look at how time passes — or doesn’t — for Dartmouth students. We write about what the future may hold for the next generation of medical professionals and how students feel about reopening the economy. We also shine a light on those who are able to hold onto some semblance of normalcy during this time — spotlighting the transition of Dartmouth College Radio to remote production and sharing how Muslim students are continuing to observe Ramadan in quarantine. There are also aspects of this period that are unlike anything we’ve ever encountered; we report on the phenomenon of experiencing extremely vivid dreams in quarantine, and we reminisce on the times when we were busy with our extracurricular activities.
Although you may not have left your house in the past week and can barely tell the difference between a Sunday and a Tuesday, we cannot ignore the fact that time does not stand still. Holding onto traditions and routines can help create a comforting sense of “business as usual.” It can also be helpful to recognize that there are some aspects of regular life that we cannot replicate in quarantine. So maybe it’s time to invest in adult day-of-the-week underwear — hey, we won’t judge. At least you’ll never show up to your 2A on a Monday.
