We asked first-year students at St. Joe’s, who have never attended a pre-pandemic campus, and only know it as a place of masks and brown paper dinner bags and tents and often empty common spaces, to capture the campus from their perspective.
Our ask is based on Bloomberg CityLab’s Coronavirus Map Project, which was published in June and features maps that people all over the world created to document their city, neighborhood or home spaces as impacted by the pandemic.
Of the more than two dozen maps we received, we find first-year students grappling, as they do every year, with trying to get to know their new home. We see sunrises and study nooks and running paths. We see exhilaration and loneliness, desires for connections and the relief of solitude. We see students coming to terms with a semester on Hawk Hill like no other, but still finding their way.
If you’d like to contribute a map to our series, please contact Giana Longo ’22, Features Editor, at [email protected] for submission guidelines.
Hannah Medaya ’24:
My quarantine map highlights the places around campus where I feel at home, places where I venture out and places where I keep to myself.
Home: Being 307 miles away from my home in Boston is not easy. At night I often feel lonely, craving a hug from my loved ones. However, pointing out the places at St. Joe’s that make me feel at home helps me to realize that everything is okay, and I can make this place my own. For example, my room is my own space. I can have pictures of my family, I can spray scents that remind me of home and I can FaceTime my family and friends whenever I want. My room serves as a safe space.
Adventure: Whether it is to meet new people or just focus on my own health, I enjoy exploring campus. There are two specific places I included in the map. The first place is The Perch. Although I only recently started going to The Perch, it is a great place to socialize and meet new people. Although there is a capacity limit of 25 people, I am still able to meet new people when I go. It gives me a chance to safely interact while still getting the opportunity to experience the social interactions of college.
Be Myself: I have been a swimmer since I was 8 years old, so I feel at home in the pool. It is something I have always enjoyed and it gets my mind off of the stress of school. It is a time where I can be by myself, focus on my health and just enjoy my time.
All of these places on campus have become my second home and have helped me realize how lucky I am to have the chance to come to college and experience this all.
Medaya is a communication studies major from Boston, Massachusetts.
