The cancellation of in-person classes for the remainder of the semester due to the coronavirus pandemic meant the sudden end of my Mercer University tenure. I am a senior Journalism major at Mercer. When classes went online at Mercer, I returned home to live in Roswell, GA with my mother, stepfather, and older sister who also returned home from Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio. 

It’s weird for me to think that my time at Mercer University would end by means of global pandemic, the worst we have had in over 100 years nonetheless. My biggest concern is the job market. The economy has taken a hit from events, premieres, and sporting events being cancelled. The stock market plummeted, and many major companies are feeling the effects. Smaller companies have it even worse. 

I think that once we all recover, it will take a while for the economy to recover to the point where companies will start normally hiring again. I feel like it will be me sitting and doing nothing for a long time after classes end. 

This will not necessarily change the job I am looking for after graduation. I will still look to get into the field of public relations or journalism hopefully for a sports team. If that job is not available for hiring, I will most likely settle for part-time work related to my hopeful field. 

In the meantime, I will probably use the period of time between the economic slowdown caused by the pandemic to have time off once I complete my classes. I was planning on having that time off anyways. I will still be looking for jobs, though. I do not want to wait too long to get a job after this pandemic ends, because I feel as though that will be detrimental later on. As for right now, I am just going to wait. I’m going to wait and see what this situation will do and trust that I will be taken care of eventually.