Being 18, a legal adult, leaving home, starting college and living independently for the first time are usually what follows high school graduation. For recent alumni, though, their first year of college has been turned upside down by COVID-19. 

“It’s strange going from being able to do whatever I want whenever I want to having to stay in the house and tell my parents any time I leave,” 2019 alumna Grace Watson said. 

Grace started at the University of Michigan in the fall of 2019 and has already made a kind of home out of her new school. 

“I miss my friends from school, and I can’t even see my friends from home to make up for it,” Grace said. “I feel very bored, unmotivated, and just scared for the world.”

Nikki Han, a member of the Class of 2018, has been at Vanderbilt University for two years.

“It’s nice to be with the family, but it does have its negatives,” Nikki said. “We’re all stuck doing work in the house and not leaving, so it gets kind of crowded sometimes.”

Nikki has two younger siblings, Danny who is a junior and Christian who is in first grade. With so many people in the house, she said she feels closer to her family than she typically would just being home on vacation.

“I pretty much know everyone’s weekly zoom schedule at this point,” Nikki said. 

Danny and Hunter Tyndall, both juniors with older, Lab alumni siblings, say there are ups and downs to having their sisters back at home.

“My chore load does decrease. That is nice,” Hunter said. “I don’t get asked to do as much throughout the day, which is really nice, but that also means there’s no excuse to not do my chores.”

Hunter said that by the time he and his sister, 2019 alumna Alexis Tyndall who is attending Columbia University, were in high school at the same time, their lives were so separated that he doesn’t notice a big difference at home whether Alexis is home or not.

For Alexis though, there is a big difference. 

“Being at home has also been very different because I haven’t spent more than three weeks with my family since last August,” Alexis said. “I’ve just had to get used to a new schedule and lifestyle living at home and not living independently anymore.”

Unlike Hunter, Danny says the house is a lot quieter when Nikki isn’t home. 

“The family room has been filled with funny disputes about claimed spots on the sofa,” Nikki said. 

Bolu Johnson, a 2014 alumnus, left New York because of COVID-19. Bolu is an investment banking analyst, and unlike his siblings who can do distance learning all day, he said it’s hard for him to get work done at his family’s home in Kenwood.

“It’s extremely hard staying motivated. Definitely a huge test of discipline,” Bolu said. 

His younger brother, Tolu, junior, said that because Bolu’s job is so demanding, having him home isn’t very different from when he’s in New York. 

“Sometimes we do workouts together which is really beneficial because sometimes I have trouble getting myself to work out,” Tolu said. 

Though it’s agency and independence that these alumni are giving up, they all do it for the greater good.