Bridget Flaherty ‘21

Features Editor

Last semester, I had the pleasure of interviewing first-year Daniel Maddigan who spent his first semester of college at home in California. Now that he’s on campus, I caught up with him again to see how his experience has changed.

What is life like on campus? Is it how you’d imagined it to be?

Life on campus, although impacted by the restrictions, has been very enjoyable and beats being at home. There are plenty of ways to safely interact with people in person, though it is still probably more difficult to meet people during this school year than in years past. Prior to COVID, this is not how I imagined college life would be at all. However, with the knowledge of the pandemic, I knew large aspects of campus life would be limited, and it is about the best it could be given the circumstances.  

What do you like the most about being on campus?

Being able to see my peers in person is definitely the most enjoyable part of being on campus. Taking fully remote classes as a Californian made me feel pretty separated from my fellow students and campus culture. Being here allows me to actually socialize and study with classmates safely in person, an experience I was seriously lacking in the first semester. 

What do you like the least about being on campus?

As a native resident of Los Angeles, I do miss 70 degree January days with clear blue skies. That being said, experiencing a real winter has been a cool experience even if I’m still getting used to it.

What are you looking forward to the most once the pandemic is over and campus life returns to normal?

I am definitely looking forward to intramural sports in a post-pandemic world. I’ve missed playing a casual, but competitive game of basketball with some friends, and I’ve heard that there is a lot of participation in intramural sports here, so I can’t wait for that.

How have you been making friendships? What are the biggest obstacles socially?

I have been able to make friendships. I think the primary obstacle to making more friends is online classes. Normally, you’d make a certain amount of acquaintances and know people from talking before or after class, but because nearly all classes are online now, those casual relationships have been eliminated—at least for now. 

Now that you’ve had the chance to (semi) experience both — Kimball or Crossroads?

Haven’t been to Crossroads yet so not sure if I can answer this one.

I’m happy to hear that our freshmen are enjoying campus life and finally getting a taste of the real college experience. However, I think we as a community can all agree that we need to get Daniel some Croads mozzarella sticks ASAP.