When I was ten years old, my family and I decided to get a dog and called him Nalu. We chose the Hawaiian name Nalu because when naming him there had been a tsunami on one of the Hawaiian islands, and in Hawaiian it means; ocean wave. My parents met in Hawaii which is why this name is even more important to me since they are no longer together. Nalu was born in 2010 making him ten years old now. He is a Golden Retriever and Labrador mixed breed and currently lives with my mom in Lugano. Because of the coronavirus, I’m now back in my home and have gotten to spend a lot of time with him. Having grown up together, he lets me do absolutely anything to him whether it’s squishing his face or constantly playing with his soft ears. He also understands English and Italian just like me, he is very obedient and smiles daily. Whenever we go for walks, he always looks back to check on me making sure I’m still following him. Three years ago my mom and I decided to get him a companion so that when we are away for the whole entire day he has someone to keep him company. We got a rescue dog and called her Abby. They are now inseparable just like Nalu and I because of our amazing relationship. On April 14th, for the first time in my life, Nalu scared my mom and I.
At around three on that Tuesday afternoon, I was sitting in my room doing homework, I was in my room doing homework. Suddenly! Nalu came through the garden door into my room panting heavily. Nalu’s troubled breathing, and painfull retching, shook his entire body to the point of barely standing. As I stood there watching him in worry, a tear fell down his right eye, something I’d never seen before. Nalu had been eating a lot of grass, which we thought was good for him at the time because when a dog eats grass it helps them to relieve whatever is bothering their stomach by vomiting. Apparently, all the grass he had been eating made him feel worse. This stopped and started for about forty minutes. At that point, we brought him to the veterinarian, worried that this would happen again later that night.
It was still a scary experience when we got to the veterinarian. Because of the coronavirus, there are extremely strict rules such as waiting outside the studio and not being allowed to enter the room with our own dog. Nalu has never liked going to the veterinarian, whenever we go we have to put a muzzle on and have two people hold him down so that the veterinarian can check him. For the first time in our life, we had to give the dog to them and hope for the best. Unfortunately, they did not know what could have caused the problem. The veterinarian said it could have been a type of colic.
This eye-opening experience made me realize how important Nalu has become to me. When this event happened I was frightened that I was going to lose him forever. Seeing my dog not being able to breathe and myself not being able to do anything sent me into shock. I reflected on this entire event and it made me realize how many things we take for granted each day. It is easy for us to become self-absorbed and forget about what we truly admire, love, and appreciate. Nalu has been part of my life ever since I was nine years old, he truly scared me the other day especially because I never witnessed something like this before. It was as if he were trying to ask me for help and wanted me to do something but I couldn’t do anything at all. People have always told me that the loss of a dog is like the loss of a person. I never understood what that truly meant until this incident occurred, when just the thought of losing him created a sense of emptiness inside myself.
Overall, as scary as this experience was, reflecting on the aftermath of the event taught me a valuable lesson. Taking everything day by day and acknowledging who and what has an important role in your life will make you feel better when an experience like this occurs.
Quarantine has given me a lot of free time on my hands, so to stay sane I have turned towards books and art for the first time since high school. When I graduated high school I bought a pair of white Converse sneakers to customize. I gave one shoe to my best friends and the other to my art teacher and told them all to paint whatever they wanted to, no restrictions. My teacher, who taught me from ages 8 to 18, painted the Powerpuff Girls along one whole side. This had been a running joke for a long time and now at Webster the joke has resurfaced because of my roommate. So, when I painted the Powerpuff Girls on this hat, I wanted it to be cute and goofy, but it also has personal meaning to me.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic Webster University has moved to online classes for the whole of Spring 2 term. Physical classes are expected to resume as usual for Fall 1, after the summer. Students now have anywhere from 1-6 courses happening online. Many teachers offered the option of doing their course as a pass or fail, meaning a student can either pass or fail without the grade affecting their GPA. I sent out an anonymous survey to Webster students about how these classes are impacting their learning ability and whether they are a good alternative to physical classes.
Nearly half of the students said that they had taken online classes before, however, most online classes at Webster are different, they do not have the current WebEx format. Other online classes require work to be done and turned in each week but there are no meetings with the teacher and the class. WebEx adds many additional complications to classes.
Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, only 19% of students said that they felt like they were learning in their current online courses. Most students said that they had trouble staying engaged, making it difficult to learn. The rest, 16%, just said they have not learned anything. Much of this may be due to interest and motivation dropping. 81% of those asked, said that their overall interest in their courses has dropped since moving online and they are not putting in the same amount of effort.
Even though students don’t feel like they are able to learn new content a majority are receiving more work now than in their physical classes. The same proportion of students, 58%, feel more inclined to cheat in their courses. The increase in work coupled with an inclination to cheat, the ability to access the internet at every moment, and lack of motivation have made the integrity of assignments questionable.
Being online makes it easy to cheat although it also comes with its own problems. 62% of students said that they are affected by internet problems such as being unable to connect to WebEx, unable to hear the teacher, or unable to see video. Even in households with good wi-fi having several classes and/or conference calls going at the same time is difficult to maintain, this is the case in my house. If a class is missed due to bad internet then it is difficult to make up. As an international school Webster professors have the additional problem of many students missing class due to different time zones. Only 8% of those asked said that they miss class because of being in a different time zone but this is the case for many American study abroads, who account for a large portion of Webster’s student base.
While online classes definitely don’t yield the same results as physical classes, they are the best alternative that we have in these unprecedented times. They are better than having nothing because they allow students to continue or finish their studies, however, they are not a replacement and I do not recommend them in the future. The general consensus between students is that even though there is less pressure doing classes in a home environment there is also less motivation, more work, and less comprehension. We students may complain about our courses, our homework, or even our professors, but after this period of being away from campus I think we are all ready to be back at Webster, taking classes with our friends!