A Day in the Life of a UVM Student

School life has definitely changed with Covid, but after nearly a month back in classes I've started to find myself falling back into a routine. I normally get up around 7 AM and work out first thing in the mornings. Unfortunately, I sprained my ankle the first day of classes very badly ( to the point where I went in to the medical center and got x-ray because thought I fractured it) so I've been out of my normal running routine. Instead, I've been doing more arm and core workouts (Caroline Gillman's YouTube workouts are amazing). Thankfully, I'm able to walk again so I've been going on some easier hikes/snow shoe trips and have attempted the going to gym and using the elliptical to get some cardio in. After stretching (if I remember) it's time to shower and start the day.

I normally make and eat breakfast around 8:30/9:00 and sit down with a cup of coffee or chai to plan out my day. Some breakfasts I've been loving lately are waffles, pancakes, and oatmeal topped with banana or apple and peanut butter, chokecherry jam, and dairy free (DF) yogurt. If I want something savory my go-to is avocado toast with scrambled tofu.

This semester most of my classes are in person, I my first classes of the day are at 9:40 on M/W/F and 11:30 on T/R. My classes this semester are Biology of Ferns (my fav), Archaeology in Popular Culture, What’s Brewing in Food Science, Physics, PSS Undergrad Research, PBIO Capstone, and Ballet. Roughly 18/19 credits total (I forget if ballet is 1 or 2). I’m normally done with classes by 3:30 and work on homework or my completley online class in between my in person and synchronous classes. On Mondays I have an extra class that goes from 5-6:30, so that day’s a bit longer than others.

I’m still doing work in the herbarium and thankfully was approved to come in person to the lab to photograph, annotate, file, and digitize the specimens. If I’m busy in the morning or have extra time in the evenings I often to some online work for the collection. If you’re intrested in seeing some of the stuff I work with, you can check out the digital herbariums we’re apart of. The North American Network of Small Herbarium (NANSH) is where all of our herbaceosu speices are listed and Pteridoportal is where ferns and their relatives are listed.

After classes end I take some chill time to call friends and do errands like clean up my apartment or check the mail, take out the recycling and compost, etc. This semester I'm living alone in apartment complex and often find myself listening to music, podcasts, audio book, and calling friends to keep me company.

I always have a lot of homework to do, so I’ll work on that until dinner time. Since Vermont still has a lot of COVID restricitons in place, I’m not able to see anyone in person oustide of my “adopted” household (people living alone can join another household ) so I’ve been doing a lot of facetime dinners with friends and family members when I don’t go over to the house. Just having a bubble with a few other people to see consistently has helped so much with my mental health and need to socialize. I’m also thankful that now school has started my friends have returned and school/work have definitely kept me busy, even if my stress levels have certainly gone up in other ways. Nevertheless, I’m the type of person that prefers to be busy rather than bored.

After dinner I normally do a little bit more home/work before my brain decides to shut off. Then it’s time for zen/brainless time, or what my father liked to refer to as “couch potato” time. I unfortunately have found myself easily sucked into social media these days....I spend more time on TikTok and YouTube than I’d care to admit. Though I did read an 800 page book in less than three days last week...so I’m not solely on my phone.

On the rare day when it’s not cloudy, the sunsets are beautiful and I normally try to get out for a short (or longer) walk to see the view. This is normally at 5:30 ish pm (so much better than 4 pm) and before I have dinner but the picture fit better at the end, so please forgive the chronological error. Anyways, after all of that it’s normally 9 or 10 pm and I often don’t have motivation to do much else. Sometimes I’ll make myself a fancier dessert than my normal chocolate squares and have a mini dance party by myself to some boppin’ music.

I try to prep a bit for the next day by making my lunch ahead of time. Dishes are always a hassle and take a while as I do everything by hand. When the day’s done I try to journal before getting ready and going to bed. The goal is to be asleep 8 hours from whenever I plan on waking up, so theoretically I should be in bed and asleep by like 10:30 pm but that doesn’t happen very often.

Anyways, I hope my rather general, slightly boring, day in the life of a college student amused you to some extent. Weekend adventures are much more exiting, but equally unpredictable so they’re harder to write about in advance. Hopefully I’ll have my fair share of (COVID free) adventures this semester and not fail my physics course (wish me luck, I need it). Best,

An Adventurous Aquarius