The past few weeks have definitely been a roller coaster. I was studying abroad in Vienna, Austria, and my parents and sister were actually visiting me.

We were all keeping an eye on the news about COVID-19. We had received an email from the University earlier that week that told us that we could continue with online classes if we felt more comfortable but that the program was going to still run. By the end of the week, President Trump announced a travel ban and within the next 24 hours, the majority of the SLU students in my program, including myself, returned back to the states. Fortunately, my family was with me, which made the process much easier. However, one of my roommates woke up in the middle of the night to a phone call from her parents saying they had booked a flight for her in five hours. It was an abrupt transition and hard to properly leave. We had a day to process that our entire semester was going to be uprooted and that we were going to miss out on travel opportunities and historical elements in the city of Vienna. It was very disappointing as a student that has heard countless stories of amazing abroad experiences, but at the same time we all realized that going home to be with our families was the best option.

Since being back home, a lot of questions have come up. How will we get the textbooks that we left in Vienna? How will we be able to have classes with a time difference? How will we be graded on the experiential learning, such as city walks and museum tours that we were supposed to complete? The Austro-American Institute has assured us not to worry and that they have all of our professors working on online alternatives. We are very fortunate that we have the technology to continue our studies from different locations, but I will miss the typical small classroom environment and being able to have in person meetings with professors.

As a student-athlete on the volleyball team, roller coasters are quite familiar to us. The average play in volleyball lasts around 5-15 seconds, which is pretty quick if you think about it. We have prepared mentally for ups and downs whether we realize that or not. I have no doubt in my mind that the Saints volleyball team will come out stronger than ever on the other side of this adversity. We are a very close group of friends and teammates and we always have each others' back on and off the court.

Although it is a challenge not being able to practice together and be on campus right now, we always have a group chat going where anyone is free to express how they are feeling. We have all been trying out new apps that are either workout, mental health, or self-care related and love reporting back to each other on new ideas we have found to stay safe and also healthy during this period of social distancing. I know that we are all missing the gym atmosphere like crazy right now, but we have also found a bunch of new at home routines that are effective and doable with little to no equipment. 

When the team returns in the fall, I think there will be a lot of gratitude for the little things that our team shares. This experience, although it did not go according to plan, is uncharted territory for all of us and we understand that there needs to be flexibility on all accounts.

We do not know when this roller coaster is going to end, but the Saints volleyball team is well equipped for the journey ahead of us and we are excited for the chance to be together again. 

Lauren Donohue '21 is a junior on the volleyball team. This piece is part of a series of stories by student-athletes about how St. Lawrence student-athletes saw their academic and athletic plans change rapidly as the spread of COVID-19 across the nation caused St. Lawrence to make the transition to remote learning instruction after spring break. If you are a St. Lawrence student-athlete interested in participating in this project, please contact Aaron Todd at atodd@stlawu.edu.