Yeah it just... really blows for me. My anxiety's been up through the roof, and the timing couldn't be worse personally.
I'm a Canadian university student and this year was my last. I'm set to graduate this year, and basically our diplomas are going to get mailed to us and we're doing a virtual graduation. Granted, they are looking into in person ceremony options when they are safe (specifically in the vein of a traditional graduation ceremony), but we don't know 100% what's going to happen yet. On top of that, a lot of the people that I hoped would be present (my friends who live in other provinces/countries) had to go home, so even if something is done after it blows over, the post-celebration will probably not go the way I was hoping. Because of everything, it's been really hard to get any motivation to even work on my assignments - and even then, I'm generally awful with online learning formats. I've been trying to combat this by working on a little each day, so hopefully that will offset my general exhaustion.
On top of that, I'm on the exec team of an A Cappella club, and I was a Props Designer for my musical theatre club's production of Chicago.
For the A Cappella club, a lot of people were graduating that year, and we had to cut the formal gala & concert due to the circumstances, which are events people really look forward to. People were really understandably crushed, as they had been part of that club for years. I'm happy that everyone on the exec team tried to look for positive solutions and worked with each other (some of us have been hosting online socials), but the exec meeting for that was really crushing regardless, let alone telling people we would have to cancel it after weeks of rehearsals and solo auditions. This was after a series of dilemmas on having to book a new venue for 250 individuals! The other implication that arose from this was that the ICCAs got cancelled (which, if you didn't know, is the biggest collegiate A Cappella competition - think Pitch Perfect!). We had a group that was sent there that was heartbroken as this was the first time they ended up #1 in the Quarterfinals, which meant they might have a shot into Finals. Though everyone understood why it was cut short, I don't think I've ever walked into a situation like that in the entire history of all the performance groups I've been involved with where I saw people drying their tears because they were mourning the opportunity they had lost, after a year of practicing and creating suitable choreography. Watching that was harrowing, to say the least, and my heart still goes out to them.
As for the musical theatre club, I've been part of it for the last four years, and it was my last show with the club, and a last chance to finish off with all of my friends (some of whom were also graduating). We had also been the first group in our regional area ever that ended up securing the rights for Chicago, as nobody (not even professional theatre companies in the district!) had gotten them before. We had people sewing costumes, making handmade props, spending extra time outside of two 5 hour rehearsals per week practicing choreography, others practicing their trumpet parts, and even people who commuted by car for an hour to work on sets or grab rental microphones, if that gives an idea to the sheer amount of work put in from everyone despite this being done entirely on a volunteer basis. We were basically forced to cancel our show the week of tech week, which everyone understood, but was equally crushing. The club is still looking into alternative performance ideas when it's safe to go out again for those in the production, but a lot of people (including me) are still grieving over what we lost. Because of the size of the production (68 people - cast, crew, and band) - we need to have a large stage to incorporate everyone, and I'm not sure whether one can even be found, let alone considering people who might leave because of graduation, being on exchange, or other reasons. On top of that, I don't know how much debt the club has accrued from paying to secure rights, a venue, and rentals for technical supplies, which are expensive, and then... being unable to recoup the cost with tickets. To my understanding, a lot of performance-based arts groups are dealing with the same issue, at least in my area.
As a related tangent, though I understand people have different ways to cope and that's totally a-okay, I personally try to stay away from jokes about the virus because they don't really make me laugh; they just remind me of everything I poured my time and passion into in the entirety of my graduating year that ended up getting cancelled, and all the sadness that brought me and the others in my surroundings. Not to mention all those that have passed because of the disease, or struggled with family members passing. My saving grace is that I have a job and that my friends and family are all safe, but as an extrovert, it's still a really draining period of time considering all that's happened. I've been trying to hold on to things that make me happy, like my D&D campaigns, playing Animal Crossing, and interacting with my friends through Discord servers, but that's basically where I'm at atm as a student set to graduate :/
EDIT: I don't think I realized how much I needed to talk about this until I posted. Sorry for the abysmally long post /)n(\
