Student Relationships with Friends and Family during Quarantine

By Emily Robles | Published by April 9, 2021

Since Covid-19 started, everything has changed. Our lives went from having absolute freedom to not even being allowed to go to most places. This includes students being ripped away from their college life and back into the homes of their parents, which isn’t the best of plans. Imagine, who would’ve thought we’d still be in the same place a year ago today?

As a student who had lived on campus since the very beginning of their college career, leaving was the last thing I wanted to do. It’s very hard to get my work done from my bed rather than in a classroom, but I’m trying my best.

It’s even harder for most parents to understand that we students aren’t just relaxing all day. This is not a vacation for us. We, too, are working from home and still struggling with the transition.

The hardest thing for me was the transition from living on campus and being on my own, to moving back home with my parents. In some ways, I’ve reverted back to my teenage self: constantly behind my closed door and listening to old Taylor Swift songs.

I’m back in my old, teenage room, no friends next door to me. I can’t just get up and go to Tropicana at midnight with my friends anymore and honestly it makes me upset most days.

Some things I miss the most is being in a college environment, surrounded by my friends. Since Covid, it’s been hard keeping in contact with the people I’d see on campus or the friends I’ve made while living in the dorms.

My relationships with some friends have changed drastically because I really only saw them on campus and now I only get to see my best friend and boyfriend. I miss having that constant social interaction and being around people my age. Now, I am always around my parents, specifically my mother.

During the week, my mother is home since she is also working remotely and she can be extremely loud sometimes, especially when she’s talking on the phone with someone, on a zoom call, or worse, vacuuming the house.

Despite all that, I can’t complain about having my mother around, she beats having a messy college roommate, and who can hate on the home cooked meals since I didn’t get much of that while living at Kean. While living back at home wasn’t my preferred way of finishing my last year of college, it hasn’t been as bad as I could have imagined.

As the one year mark of quarantine in New Jersey draws near, It seems that other students don’t mind being home with their parents and families. Some feel as if their families are getting closer than ever since they’re stuck inside together.

Josephine O’Grady, a community health education major, says that quarantine has strengthened her and her familys’ relationship.

“As a family, we’ve all gotten much closer,” O’Grady said. “With everyone home, our lives are very much intertwined.”

O’Grady is a junior and has always lived at home while going to school. She lives with her parents and three other siblings. Even though they are all home with each other, she says things stay calm and cool for the most part.

“Seeing so much of each other has never inherently been frustrating,” O’Grady said. “We respect each other’s personal space.”

When it comes to her friends, O’Grady says that her friendships have strengthened during quarantine. She says she talks on the phone alot with her friends and co-workers very often.

“The “catching up” part of friendship has become so much more versatile,” O’Grady said. “Our physical presence is not a prerequisite of the intimacy that comes with relationships.”

Other students have also expressed their relationships improving with people while in quarantine. Brianna Ruiz, a speech and hearing sciences disorder major, says that quarantine has made some of her relationships change for the better.

“Covid and being in quarantine has changed my relationship with my younger brother a lot,” Ruiz said. Now, Ruiz and her brother spend time doing homework together and have time where they do fun things together like watch movies and shows.

“Before covid I was living at home, but I was planning on living on campus for my last year,” Ruiz said. “Being around my parents more often now is definitely different. It gets frustrating sometimes and I miss being able to have my own space.”

When it comes to being with her parents more often, she says it can get difficult. Ruiz said the most frustrating part of being home with her family all the time now is not being able to go out and get away from it all if she needs too.

“It’s fun until you start arguing about something,” Ruiz said. “Then you’re stuck in the house until things get better.”

This can be a frustrating time for students and parents alike, but we’re getting through it. Hopefully, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and we can all get back to a normal life sooner rather than later. All I know is that, once the world opens up again, I’m never coming home.

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