From Where I Sit is an ongoing column associated with the ESOL program that aims to share the stories and experiences of international students.

I still remember when the inevitable email from President Wippman arrived in our inboxes. It was a rainy/almost snowy Thursday morning, but not as cold and dreary as the situation would evolve to be. I was faced with a dilemma — going back home or staying at Hamilton. After deliberation with my parents in Kenya, we decided that staying here was the best choice for the meantime.

Most of the students who remained are international students, but there are also a few other cases in which the student could not go back home. We were all relocated to Bundy East on a sunny Wednesday morning, and all facilities were shut down except for the Bundy Café. The Café has been my life ever since.

There is no more walking across campus for class, as I sleepily make my way to the desk and sign in to my Zoom. Sometimes, I do not need to go to class at all, thanks to the Zoom recordings! Most of my day is spent in my room, except when I go to get my grab-and-go meals from the Bundy Café. The food quality is more or less the same, but we are spoiled by Hamilton when it comes to snacks, especially Oreos.

Hamilton is extraordinarily quiet now, and the peace is almost surreal. You only need to take a short walk around campus to deeply connect with nature and yourself. Last month, I went to the Root Glen twice to clear my mind and do something different from taking classes, eating, sleeping, watching YouTube, and coding. I try to stay virtually connected with my family, friends, and colleagues, checking in on them to make sure they are well and sane in a world seemingly going insane.

The administration is doing their best to accommodate our stay by holding a weekly community check-in with Dean Hill and Dean Genao-Homs and assigning us to campus liaisons who check in with us regularly. However, I miss the sight of fellow students leaving lecture buildings, long food lines in Commons during “peak” dining hours, the packed gym at 4 p.m. in the evenings, the ever-busy Martin’s Way, and crowded office hours in the afternoons just to name a few. These are things that many of us, myself included, considered mundane.

With every passing day here, I find myself reflecting on various “what-if” scenarios — some are jovial, some are a tad gloomy and others are sad. What if life was still “normal”? Would I have ever found myself eating at Bundy Café? Would I be eating snacks as much as I do right now? How often would I even be in my room? Would I have ever set foot in the Glen more than twice a month? Would I check on my friends as regularly as I do now, or as I ought to? What if everything goes back to normal, and we, later on, forget all this ever happened as humans are bound to? I know that I am taking away the lessons of gratitude and community from this stressful period — that we should be grateful for every moment and that we all need each other more than we think we do. My hope is that you are as well.