What if: this pandemic happened 10 years ago and how would I study for my midterms?

I had this strange moment when I was thinking about my studying habits with online school. And I decided to set up this thought experiment and wonder how I’d be studying for my midterms. Would it be kind of the same or how different would I find things?

Starting off with tech, my laptop recently broke so I have switched to writing on an iPad. And I can say for sure that I found it very uncomfortable at first. It just felt like a weird writing experience, it just felt off. But I got used to it again. So, I’ve finally moved on from paper; not completely, I seem to prefer to print past papers and readings sometimes. So back in 2010, I would have had a plethora of pink or blue folders, dividers and notepads and a sweeping array of every colour condensed into a pen form. The ‘click’ sound of my pens, each one slightly different from the other, helped to fill boredom and be the source of my fidgeting, something I cannot do with my 21st Century digital pencil. That simple ‘click-click’. 

The laptop above is an icon, I love it even though it may not work at all anymore.

Anyway, I’d end up getting through a lot of paper, but organising notes and handouts somehow feels more involved and it physically exists. I say this because another digital folder is basically invisible, whereas a physical pink folder takes up space in your room. So you’re picky with it and how I organise it. And when I would be done with that sheet of paper, I’d scrunch it up and play real-life 'paper toss' it across the other side of the room - like the smartphone game. That was fun. 

For my desk, I’d have a bunch of wires twirling in all directions as I’d struggle with cable management. I wouldn’t have my blue-light glasses. I’d be playing music from iTunes and my iPod with my wired headphones. Actually, I still listen with wired headphones, there’s something nostalgic about them and they’re better in some ways.  

Bye zoom university and Quercus! I don’t know about you but almost all my group work and extracurricular work involves google drive. And even a course last year required us to use the platform. So, I don’t know how we’d be working without google drive. We can’t go passing some USB stick/thumb drive around. I guess Skype and messaging would be the done thing unless a 2010 zoom appeared. Or maybe a mini zoom.

So, as I come back to where we are now, I’m happy and fortunate to be in this place where my professors make an effort to adapt and class representatives get me more time for assignments. I can still live from home but learn as if I were on campus, better than 2010 anyway. Yet, I would have spent more time thinking or reading probably then, now I am barely away from my screens. Is it a good thing? Probably not as good, but it works for now. And the midterm I've got tomorrow. Good luck everyone with yours 🙂