Needless to say, the past few weeks have been chaotic and nerve-racking as students adjust to an entirely new way of learning. The indescribably disruptive rise of COVID-19, followed by a rapid succession of radical changes in the way we live and work, has inevitably, and understandably, thrown many students into a daze that has made this transition disorienting.
I admit that I needed a quick reality check this past weekend when the impending return to classes seemed to materialize out of nowhere. I think we’ve all noticed that living under lockdown does strange things to time, making the end of our extended spring break seem perpetually distant.
But now that we are here, grappling with a new norm, falling into a routine of Zoom lectures and solitary study, many are wondering how study habits and academic performance will develop in this strange situation. I think learning under lockdown might provide a unique opportunity.  
It’s self-evident that the way we study has been changed dramatically for the time being. We no longer have the days of going to SI sessions or cramming in Middleton between classes. Whether we like it or not, our study options are confined to solitude.
Reaching out for the opinions of my friends and classmates has yielded mixed results. Many feel that continuous immersion in the monotony of quarantine has made them more susceptible to distraction. They feel that temptations of procrastination and complacency have increased exponentially with the difficulty of being physically removed from diversions.
The breakdown of any compulsory routine can also make time feel expendable, as if a Netflix break won’t close the seemingly endless amount of time between you and your next deadline.
On the other hand, many students have told me that they’re having some of the best study sessions of their academic careers. With nowhere to go and no one to see, they admit to feeling a sense of guilt when not taking advantage of so much free time.
Driven by a desire to get ahead and make the most of the situation, they have begun to dive deep into their studies in ways they haven’t been able to in the daily raucousness of normal college life.
As someone who continually struggles with procrastination, I understand and appreciate the frustration of trying to work among inescapable distractions. However, I find myself having greater sympathy for the latter perspective.
The often silent and uneventful nature of quarantine has elevated my schoolwork into an almost meditative practice. As the world traverses through these intensely strange and unnerving times, I find it profoundly refreshing to focus my attention on something as benign and normal as a paper or reading response.
With so much extra time, I’m also finding myself reconnecting with my major in a way that is often difficult to do during the grind of an average semester. I am appreciating the luxury of reading deeper and more thoroughly, finally enjoying the field of study that I was so excited to choose in the first place. The removal of my old routine has made my work feel valuable again, beyond the grade it gets me.
This is where I might see a glimmer of a silver lining in our unfortunate predicament. Studying under the unusual circumstance of quarantine not only provides students with an outlet to briefly escape the disheartening reality of these times, but also allows us to explore our passions and curiosities with a certain vigor that may have been impossible otherwise. 
Evan Leonhard is an 19-year-old English and philosophy freshman from New Orleans, Louisiana.