Finding Your Sunset
By: Nathaniel Morgan
Tags: College, Sunset, Coroavirus, Coffee, Conversations

December 1st. What is, in my mind, the real beginning of the Christmas season. I rang in this most wonderful time of year with my annual listening of the 1965 A Charlie Brown Christmas album by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. It was a great way to wake up before hitting this Tuesday in stride. I checked my phone and found that my Media Theory professor issued an extension on today’s paper. A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one. Usually, this would be my heaviest day of classes. Typical Tuesdays have me going to my honors seminar, the only in-person course of my semester, but today was devoted to wrapping up our mock capstone projects. After my roommates and I got lunch at Chapman, I headed to Tulsa to finish 3D printing the final pieces of my project (more on that later in the week).

The remainder of the day was filled with running errands and tying up all the loose ends that the end of the semester brings about. Luckily, I had time to meet up with Taryn Thompson, a junior public affairs major at RSU. We met up at Starbucks, where I gave in and went fully festive with a peppermint mocha, which I have to admit was really good.

Q. I know this outdoor seating is great for pandemic safety, but it’s not a particularly warm evening, so thank you for being awesome! How’s your coffee? A. Well, I couldn’t turn down my go-to white chocolate mocha with caramel syrup. It’s my favorite, and it’s 10/10. Q. So, how’s this semester been for you? A. It has been a ride. There have been some amazing times and some terrible times. Everything feels strangely new. I’ve been told junior year is hard, but the pandemic is definitely harder. Q. So, you’d say the academic side of things has been changed by the pandemic? A. So, much of my degree was online anyway, so my transition was a little easier. I felt worse for my professors because adapting their teaching styles must have been really tough. Q. So, your department started using the Zoom class format before the pandemic. What’s it been like to see Zoom become the standard? A. When we started, it was quite a bit confusing. No one liked it because it was so new and there wasn’t a purpose behind it when we could go to class. Now with everyone using Zoom, it’s different. It used to be a lot more user friendly, but students and professors have worked together to figure it out. Q. Any college experiences you’ve particularly missed this semester? A. Oh, pool nights in the student lounge! I didn’t even know how to play before coming to college, and I’ve missed our common space. It was so informal and just felt like college to me. Someone playing the piano in the corner. People playing ping pong. Me whooping my roommate Emma at pool. It was just the best! Q. If you could tell your pre-Coronavirus self one thing, what would it be? A. Just like life, rolling with the punches is key. Bracing for the impact will wear you out more than anything else. Remember what grounds you. Q. Man, that’s good. In the same train of thought, what advice would you give to a freshman just starting college amid the pandemic? A. Probably that reminder for myself. Find your grounding point. I remember everything in my life was changing, which was hard enough without a global health crisis. Find that one restorative niche you can use every day. For me, it was watching the sunsets from the lounge in my first dorm. It was my consistency. So, I’d say keep an eye out for your sunset.

In weeks like dead week or years like 2020, finding that “sunset” for yourself is more valuable than ever. When everything is out of control, having a restorative thing is so important. My “sunset” is piano jazz, just like the Charlie Brown Christmas album I mentioned earlier. Just sitting and relaxing with that genre has become those simple moments that have helped me throughout my college experience. In these remaining days of the semester, my Spotify will be logging quite a few hours getting me in the Christmas spirit. Whether it’s a pandemic, finals week, or a crazy holiday season, it is nice to know my musical sunset will be there every step of the way.