OPINION: ‘Back to life, back to reality’

By Gabrielle A. Prather
Assistant Editor
Published Monday, Sept. 13, 2021

Another semester goes by; after a year and a half in the pandemic, TAMIU returns.

Spending my junior year in the pandemic wasn’t something I actually thought would ever happen; nonetheless, I quickly adapted to my circumstances and tried to find some normality to it. The pandemic revealed a perspective on how I viewed myself as an individual.

Despite the pandemic’s effects, I think this is what I needed—a time to self-reflect and re-evaluate my life. From the beginning of Texas A&M International University’s response to the pandemic until now, I reached a certain point where I value and better understand myself as an individual in this reality.

After 2020 flew by, 2021 entered. Fall 2021 is a brand new start for many returning students. This year I’m a senior, yet this feels different from my equivalent time in high school. I believe adulthood is setting in more than I thought, compared to 2017. These are exciting moments considering we are back to on-campus classes, seeing people physically, safely interacting with others.

After a year, it was pretty challenging for me to talk to people after being so isolated in a room practically 24 hours every day. Still, eventually, I took back my usual self, and I felt the sense of normality gone for so long.

Considering this is my next-to-last semester as a communication and English double-major, I want to push my passion for film these remaining semesters and create projects—as many as possible before I graduate. Movies and film production have been an integral part of my life practically since I was born, and it’s something I know I can’t live without.

There isn’t a day when I’m not talking about a movie that just released or theories connecting to future films in a franchise. It might be strange how I can have such a deep, profound love for movies, and it can be different for others as well—others love books, playing sports or music. Others love to buy clothes. These hobbies essentially make us who we are, and we embrace those characteristics in our daily lives.

These moments, like senior year, are when you can create lasting memories with others and never forget. Do you consider yourself to be happy where you are? Or are you satisfied with the bare minimum in what you are doing?

These are the times to be spontaneous and do the things that enter the dome glass we live in and create the world we want to live in and be happy in the end. So after 2020, this is a chance to get back to reality and start on a brand new change and create our future. What will you do?