Once I got home, I didn’t unpack right away. Hello again, denial. What was the point in unpacking a suitcase I’d be repacking in a week or two? You know where this story is going.
Caroline Saldivar first attended “Wingo Wednesday” at Left Field Tavern with a few friends a week before the start of the spring 2020 semester. A night combining a $0.70 wing deal with bingo, Wingo cycled through rounds of the classic game of luck. Prizes wenrg to the winners of each round.
Both of first-year Jordana Luther’s parents were involved in Greek life when they were in college and still keep in touch with people they met through their fraternity and sorority. Luther came to Miami wanting to join a sorority, hoping to find a group of close friends like her parents had. In early February, new members received their bids after days of recruitment. Luther got a bid to join Phi Sigma Sigma and rushed to greet the group of smiling faces of the girls who were now her sisters. About a month later, almost all of the events that she and the other wide-eyed new members had been looking forward to got canceled — socials, Big/Little Reveal, date parties, semi-formals, moms and dads weekends and formals.
For some students, the cancellation of the semester meant going home to the safety of their homes and families where they could all bond over the fact their lives have been put on hold indefinitely. For others, it meant the complete opposite. These students have gone home to find their family members thrown onto the frontline, their lives shifted into overdrive as they are also placed in the line of fire while their relatives fight the good fight against the novel coronavirus.
Life under quarantine has done treacherous things to our clothing rotations. Putting together an outfit that I couldn’t go to bed in just seems wrong to me right now, and even thinking about putting on a pair of jeans feels physically repulsive.
So, after orientation, I began my shopping search that summer by taking things in a new direction. I looked for outfits I never got to wear in high school: crop tops my dad told me not to walk out of the house in.
It's one of those perfect Oxford nights. The setting sun casts orange and pink shadows as it lazily recedes on the horizon. With the constant buzz of laughter echoing from people outside, it seems like a celebration. But really, it’s a heartfelt goodbye. Oxford can’t stay safe in its bubble forever. My roommates and I make our way uptown for our last meal.
You only turn 56 once, but my dad turning 56 during a pandemic is something that is truly once in a lifetime. After rolling out of bed and going downstairs, he enjoys his usual breakfast of a cup of coffee and a cigarette on his porch while pondering the strange circumstance he finds himself in. What do you do on your birthday when you can’t do anything?
Miami University Fashion & Design (MUF&D) is the largest student organization on campus, hosting more than 40 events each year. Among these events is the annual fashion show: its largest and most popular occasion. Produced every spring, the event showcases the year’s hard work by putting together one of the largest student-run fashion shows in the nation. With the announcement of classes going remote for the remainder of the semester, MUF&D executive board members had to decide what to do, with their 14th annual show only a month away.
On some days, Oxford seems deserted. Along High Street, shops and restaurants lie empty; the warm neon of their “open” signs stand in stark contrast to their vacant interiors. On colder days, uptown park is devoid of life, its stone animal statues the only creatures to be found. Brick Street, the de facto hub of the uptown social scene, greets visitors with shuttered windows and a sign that reads “We miss you. Stay safe.” When the sun shines, Oxford emerges, and the would-be ghost town is strangely full of life.
Ron Becker has taught Media and Culture 143 for probably 14 years. “Probably” being his word. The class is a lecture style in Laws Hall 100, one isolated lecture hall that always confuses students on the first day. To make the class more interactive, he enlists a group of 8-10 of his previous students to lead small groups for class credits and become Undergraduate Associates (UAs). When the coronavirus emails flooded our phones, the UA team felt flutters of anxiety about the upcoming small group. We started to feel the same frustration and confusion as our professors, but we also felt the stress of being students.
I turned the key, and my car purred to life. It had been a little more than a week since I had left my house, let alone driven. The headlights illuminated the small forest of trees in my backyard. I connected my phone to the speaker and glanced over at my 17-year-old brother, John, in the passenger seat. We needed to escape our parents just for the night.
On Tuesday, March 10, Miami students were informed via an email from President Greg Crawford that classes would be moving online for the rest of the semester. Shortly before that, that same news found its way to the ears of the university’s many professors telling them to prepare to move classes online.
Ingredients: TikTok, Youtube and cooking. Directions: Combine and enjoy!
For the past three years, Miami’s World Creativity and Innovation Week (WCIW) organization has built Creativity City on the front lawn of the Farmer School of Business. Last year, each exhibit or “property” was marked by a set of backdrops designed to look like the brick exteriors of campus buildings. Properties featured different student organizations and activities to exercise creative thinking. There was even a pedal wagon making rounds on the streets of campus and Oxford.
While quarantined, many students have taken to their Instagram stories, posting bingo cards, motivational quotes and songs they’re listening to. Junior marketing and entrepreneurship major Sam Christie had a different idea. A lover of all sorts of games, Christie started having regular game nights with his friends earlier this semester. When he had to go back to his hometown of Brentwood, Tennessee, he was disappointed he wouldn’t be able to continue the game nights, especially the one he had planned for his birthday.
The standout in my baking endeavors thus far has been the strawberry scones I attempted after binge-watching the show “Four Weddings and a Funeral” on Hulu.
I took some time out of my very busy schedule (of WebExing into classes for two hours a week and trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my time) to compile all of the quality films streaming on Amazon Prime, HBO Go, Hulu and Netflix right now. The Student will be releasing my recommendations in weekly installments until the end of the semester. This week, we have true-crime documentaries, fun documentaries and dramas for you.
Growing up, my sister and I didn’t have many of the common household rules. Our parents never enforced strict bedtimes, we didn’t have a chore chart hanging from the fridge and we never had a homework schedule. But there was one decree I will always remember: don’t ever waste food.
I am not a baker. I am not a cook. What I am is a lover of treats.