‘The heartbreak of lost chances’: A student’s life in 2021

Picture supplied by the University of Hull

Student Rebecca Hannant, 24, missed her graduation and saw the traineeship she had dreamed of cancelled because of the pandemic. She then became a key worker and is now studying for an MA in English at the University of Hull, hoping for better times ahead. Here, she describes what life has been like studying during lockdown

This time last year, I was a third-year university student with so much aspiration for the future.

In March 2020, September seemed like a long time away, but it was a date that offered so much promise. The world would be my oyster. Perhaps I would get a job. Or perhaps I would go into a graduate trainee scheme. Or perhaps I could pursue postgraduate education.

Either way, the future seemed bright, or so I thought.

March 2020 was an unusual time, coronavirus cases weren’t exactly unheard of, but life seemed erm… well… pretty normal. People went to work, kids went to school, and people still shopped in Primark for that cute buttoned top and matching jeans without being criticised for buying non-essential items.

The pandemic was a threat to life as we know it, but no one comprehended just how hard life would get in the months ahead.

I suspect that a common question coming up in the future will be, ‘Where were you when lockdown started?’ Only days before the official lockdown, I was in Leeds on a work experience placement with a media production company, securing that valuable experience for future jobs.

Like many people, I didn’t see the threat of the virus early on. Every day for a week, I commuted to Leeds via the train, and then home again. Meanwhile, the virus swept its way across the world, entering people’s households, shaping life for the next year and a half.

Just after my placement ended, the lockdown was implemented into everyday life; shops closed, education was forced online, and social life became non-existent due to two-metre social distancing rules.

Life just stopped, but I don’t think anyone cared. It was like a welcome break. Everything still had a sense of positivity to it.

Just like the First World War, messages of two-metre social distancing soon turned into the hope that the pandemic would all be over by Christmas. But history had already told us that this would not be the case.

‘PEOPLE THOUGHT THE PANDEMIC WOULD BE OVER BY CHRISTMAS’: Rebecca Hannant

Around this time, I applied for the BBC Journalism Trainee Scheme, a scheme I had dreamed of getting a place in.

Initial applications lead into video questions, to competency and idea-based questions. Nervous anticipation turned into excitement as I was put through multiple stages of the process. Until one day, I got the message that the scheme had to be cancelled.

Naturally, I was heartbroken, but there was always next year. It was still only early days; my spirits remained high. Despite the initial lockdown feeling somewhat hopeful, my studies were majorly affected.

All my classes stopped, and my dissertation meetings went online, making that all-important university milestone even harder to achieve.

I went from seeing my friends every day to us being placed in lockdown in different cities. A year on, our relationship is still restricted to Facebook chat.

All I could do was put my best efforts into my dissertation; luckily this all paid off in the end, and I achieved the grade I hoped for.

On completion of my undergraduate degree, I didn’t get to graduate in a way like all those before me. There was the promise of it happening online, but I declined, hoping I could celebrate this once it was over.

What should have been an important milestone became another casualty of the pandemic.

Like many students who had just finished a degree, I asked myself what I wanted to do in the future. But what can you do when no one except supermarkets is hiring, and everything is closed?

Knowing a Master’s degree would be my next best option, I looked to leave Hull and had my heart set on studying production or journalism at the University of Salford. I was offered a place on both courses; only to do one, I needed a steady income for the next few months.

Luckily, my nearest Asda store was hiring shopping pickers. I applied, and within a week, I was given the job. Little did I know how hard the job would be.

For four months, I woke up at 2am, four days a week, and headed to work to collect people’s orders. I went from studying full-time to collecting rice from shelves at 2am.

At the height of each lockdown, I was working in a team that would collect up to 30,000 items daily. It was exhausting, but it was important in securing my next steps in education.

As a new lockdown was announced in the autumn, along came the disruption to student housing.

Deciding I would not waste all my hard-earned money on accommodation I couldn’t stay in, I looked for alternatives, and applied to study for a Masters in English back at the University of Hull. Doing so, I could keep my job and study at the same time.

Shortly after Christmas, work suddenly became harder as demand soared and restrictions were ignored. With Christmas came the promise that 2021 was fast approaching and would mark the end to all this madness.

Somehow, in just seven days, life was supposed to return to normal. Only things got even worse.

Positivity and hope soon turned to dismay as we realised that the start of 2021 would not be the light at the end of the tunnel.

For me, New Year’s Eve marked the day my contract ended. I went into 2021 jobless.

A year on from the first lockdown, the future as a graduate feels even bleaker. The world isn’t as full of promise as it once was.

My only saving grace is my education, which is sadly all online. I hope I can return to campus soon and have the chance to meet face-to-face with people before heading into the outside world. A world that isn’t restricted to a zoom meeting three times a week.

The only thing I will miss about all this is pretending not to be sitting in my pyjama bottoms in the middle of a lecture.