When my alarm rang and I went to turn my phone off though, I saw that I had 33 unread text messages. At the top of my notifications, I saw an email from Lawrence S. Bacow, the president of Harvard University, with the subject line: “COVID-19 — Moving Classes Online, Other Updates.”

Disillusioned by the vague COVID-19 updates I had been receiving, I opened the email expecting to hear that the jig was up, spring break would be indefinitely extended and we’d take classes online for a couple of weeks. And I was right.

I AND MANY OF MY CLASSMATES ARE STILL IN SHOCK AND IN THE PROCESS OF FLEEING OUR CAMBRIDGE CAMPUS. AND WE’RE NOT ALONE …

But then I received another email from Rakesh Khurana, dean of Harvard College, with the subject line: “An Important Message from Harvard College.”

 
I didn’t read the whole email. I really only read the bolded phrasing: “Harvard College students will be required to move out of their houses and first-year dorms as soon as possible and no later than Sunday, March 15, at 5:00 p.m.”

I read that phrase multiple times, and it didn’t really register for me until I found myself on a group FaceTime call with my parents. By the end of our call, we had devised a plan for me to fly from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Dallas that Saturday. Numb, I prepared for an unexpected exit from Harvard College with little information besides the news of my eviction in the face of a pandemic — all of which was supposed to happen in the span of five days.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.ozy.com