This article is in no way designed to minimize the trauma that people all over the world are facing in regards to COVID-19. I do not take my health for granted and am extremely lucky to have a safe place to quarantine with such a supportive family. Stay safe, stay indoors, and stay kind.

My college career started with the hype of one of the biggest NCAA national championship games to date. Two days after watching UNC fall to Villanova in 2016, I committed to Villanova. Funny enough I had the pleasure of rewatching that same National Championship game-winning shot by Kris Jenkins yesterday. (Go Cats!) I can say with pure honesty that all of the jitters from that original night in April 2016 came back to me as I screamed at the TV, in the back of my mind somehow still uncertain whether the Wildcats would pull out the win.

This morning I woke up with 53 days until graduation. Within an instant of rolling over and turning on my phone, that was all taken away.

For 16 years I have been lucky enough to grow up in a wonderful education system, be supported by a loving family, and pursue my dreams. I have been told by my parents, my teachers and my peers that I would get the chance to challenge myself by attending a prestigious university. These college years, they said, would culminate to be the best 4 of my life. They were not wrong.

The past 3.75 years have been nothing shy of incredible. I have watched myself struggle, succeed, panic, overcome, and grow. The place I have been lucky enough to call home has taught me how to be confident in myself, how to support those around me, lead with courage, balance a mess of too many activities, and most importantly, how to be an active member of a community built on compassion. I have found role models, teammates, sisters, and best friends. So much of who I am comes from these people and what I have learned from them over the last 3.75 years.

I know I share this pain with the entire Class of 2020 when I say we were jipped, beyond belief, of the celebration and of the goodbye we had been promised.16 years of hard work and perseverance do not deserve to be met with isolation and self-quarantine. It still has not fully hit me, I'm not sure when it will or under what circumstances, but I know that "upset" is not even on the scale of emotions I am currently feeling. I sincerely appreciate all of the non-seniors who attempt to help alleviate the pain, however I have yet to find a comment that helps.

"There will be more parties!"

"You will see your friends again!"

"Villanova basketball will come back strong!"

"Homecoming in the Fall will be a great reunion!"

This reality which I am still avoiding, the cold hard truth that I am no longer a college student, makes these comments feel like a stab through the heart. Never mind the turbulent economy our graduating class is being cast out into, the unknown that lies ahead has a much greater weight on our shoulders than anything we have ever encountered. I know that even having secured a place in the job market for the Fall I will still enter it feeling like a summer intern. For us there is no closure on our senior year, never mind college in general. So how can I not still feel like a college kid?

At a time when no one has answers, no one knows what the future holds, and uncertainty is the name of the game, we as the Class of 2020 are the only ones in which life will never return to normal. When all of this panic is over, and people are able to gain back a sense of regularity, we will be just as lost as we are right now. Stores will reopen, the stock market will bounce back, and kids will once again attend classes. But the time we lost will not return.

My normal is 8 a.m. buses for Wells Fargo Tailgates, Friday afternoons at the Oreo, Campco deliveries, sprints up to Garey Hall, and taking photos in caps and gowns in front of the church. Senior year is about creating lasting memories, going on random adventures, and making stupid mistakes we know damn well we will never be able to make again. It is just as much about pulling one last all-nighter in Bartley as it is waiting in line at Kelly's. But what we are really missing right now is not the things we could be doing, it is the people we would be doing them with.

The one certainty you have when graduating college is knowing that nothing will ever again be like your last 4 years. With that knowledge, the advice you are given is to make the most of it up until the very last second. Our "last second" was stolen away when we were forced to pack 3 months of closure into a 48-hour goodbye.

So excuse us for being a bit unsteady on our feet right now.

If you know a member of the Class of 2020, I ask you to check in on them. We are heartbroken, angry, and lost, and neither our parents nor government leaders have answers. Give us room to breathe.

Reminiscing on my entrance to college with the high of that incredible National Championship win, it seems even more devastating to think of the exit that the Villanova Class of 2020 has been left with. There is one thing I hold truer than ever before in these times, and I know seniors around the country will agree: a bad day on our college campus is better than a great day anywhere else.