I was hoping I’d have more exciting things to provide updates on for my final semester of grad school, but it’s been pretty uneventful due to cancellations and changes from COVID19. Rocket launches, tennis matches, travel plans, class schedules, and even my job start date have all been rescheduled or cancelled altogether. It’s been a lot to process even in just the last week. 

All of this started at the end of January when OSU sent out travel advisories against professional travel to China. It was made more strict a couple weeks later with additional travel advisories for other countries. In late February, my roommates and I had some people over to play the Pandemic board game, and we were joking about hopefully not getting the Coronavirus. It isn’t as much of a joke anymore. 

The first week of March, OSU banned all non-essential university travel out of state which put our participation in the Argonia Cup into question. The next week, the week prior to spring break, OSU announced that students should take the necessary course materials with them when departing for spring break because for the 2 weeks following break, all courses would be online. Mere days later, it was decided that courses would continue online for the remainder of the semester. Graduation commencement ceremonies were effectively cancelled, all student organization meetings and events were no longer permitted, and OSU asked on-campus residents to move out and return home if possible. Dining options were mostly closed, and all campus buildings have since been closed to students. These more extreme changes all came in the last 2 weeks.

None of this affected me too much personally. I live off campus, I still have my TA and RA jobs, I have nearly everything I need to complete my thesis. I miss the gym, but I’m recovering from a hand injury anyway, so not a ton was affected until a few days ago. 

After graduation, Sam and I planned to spend 3 weeks in Europe visiting my family and traveling around. While we haven’t officially called that off yet, I’d be very surprised if that still went through. Spaceport America Cup 2020 has been cancelled. The Argonia Cup, which would have hosted 18 participants this year, was cancelled including the launch itself. That especially bummed me out because my birthday would have fallen on the weekend of this awesome 2-day rocket launch. It would have been the most fitting way to send out my 4-year collegiate rocketry campaign. 

However, the largest change came 5 days ago when I got a call from Textron that they are pushing all new hire start dates from mid-June to September 14. That’s 3 months I planned on working in Wichita that are now thrown wide open. There wasn’t anything major to decide upon from this new information, however. Sam and I will stay in Stillwater for the summer through July when the lease on our house runs out. After that we’ll either move home for a month or secure a place in Wichita and live without paychecks for 8 weeks. As long as we can find summer jobs that pay enough to cover the bills, we’ll be fine. It even opens some new potential for me to defend my thesis at a later time which could be welcomed since I’ll likely not get my data until 10 days before the defense if everything were to go well. 

The impacts on COVID19 have been very minor to me. Noticeable, sure, but I know others have it much worse. Health issues aside, my sister had a pretty big upending of her 2020 plans. In February she left for a semester abroad in the Czech Republic. She was ordered to return home just 6 weeks later. At the time it seemed like an unnecessary measure, but in the 2 weeks since, that decision was definitely validated, even if it was far from what she wanted to have happen. But with how poorly the US has handled this so far, maybe she would have been better off staying in the Czech Republic. 

All things considered, impacts to me have been very minor, and I’m fortunate to still be healthy and have family who have also remained unaffected so far. I certainly hope it stays that way. I don’t have any rocket pictures to post, so here are some of my baking projects in the past weeks and pictures of Kenzie. Everyone needs more dog pictures in these trying times.