April in Hanover brings bird songs and flower buds and 50-degree days that feel like summer. Students shed coats and swarm the Collis porch, treading through puddles of melted snow to get to class. But this month, thousands of feet won’t churn the paths of the Green to mud. Instead, most of us are hundreds or thousands of miles from campus, learning how to do Dartmouth from home.
This week, Mirror explores the ways in which Dartmouth students are adapting to the remote term. While some students now kill time in the kitchen, others have enrolled in a fourth class. For many, living at home — and living through a pandemic — presents new mental health challenges or increases strain on relationships with family and friends. Professors, advisors and student groups are using Zoom to hold the Dartmouth community together, but long distance is never easy.
We hope that by sharing stories of quarantine and virtual learning, Mirror can build bridges between the people and places torn apart by COVID-19. In this issue, you might collect tips from your peers for studying in a childhood bedroom. You may realize you’re not the only one overwhelmed by the news. Or perhaps you’ll decide to text that friend you haven’t seen in three terms. If we all go the extra mile — if we listen and make time for each other — Dartmouth doesn’t have to feel so far away.
