Well, this is certainly a different Week of Welcome experience.

Hi, I’m Jakob. I graduated last May, and I am a former Evergreen reporter.

Like many of you, I graduated during the middle of our country’s shutdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. I know the disappointment of seeing all that hard work put into school and not receiving a graduation ceremony to go with it.

While it is easy to remain disappointed, with no WSU football games this fall, nor in-person classes, clubs and social spaces such as the Chinook or the CUB, don’t forget why you are here.

It definitely takes much more self-discipline to keep up with online classes. I admittedly had succumbed to an enhanced form of senioritis after spring break of last semester when WSU transitioned online. Hopefully, you were already prepared for that as college classes in general require more self-discipline than high school.

Even if you’re not here getting the full university experience you were expecting, there are still ways you can connect to this campus and make WSU feel like home, you just have to seek them out.

College was a special time in my life, and I know it can be for you too. Hopefully, in a few years, you get to walk across the stage at graduation to make this changed lifestyle of ours worth it.

Good luck this semester, I will be rooting for all of you.