Gul Bansal (’21)

Senior Gul Bansal wakes up early to go for a run, watches recordings of conferences until noon, and attends some live classes in the evening. When she must attend an important live class, however, the schedule is thrown off. “There might be some class that I have to wake up at for 1 AM, to attend it.” Bansal explained.

Bansal, from Punjab in North India, details how life is different at home during the pandemic than it is here in Jacksonville. “We’re supposed to wear masks in cars too, I don’t know why they made that rule.” Bansal said. “But, yeah, we’re supposed to wear masks every time we go out of the house.”

In addition, senior traditions like the senior breakfast felt different to Gul. She notes that her dorm parents of previous years sent her a cake and their regards to help celebrate the event from home. “It was really sweet of them,” she added.

For Bansal, one of the most difficult parts of being a student at Bolles from so far away is the lack of connection to friends. She hasn’t been able to see any friends from Bolles since March. COVID restrictions have also prevented her from seeing many friends at home in India. However, she keeps in touch with her friends through facetime, text, and even online games.

Bansal’s fears for her family have escalated while living in an area with a high number of COVID cases. “Because my dad’s a neurosurgeon, he has to go to the hospital, and there’s a lot of risk that he might bring it,” Gul explains.

Another aspect of life that has been altered for Bansal is swimming. “I used to swim, but I haven’t been able to swim for the last six months because any of the pools in India still haven’t been opened,” admits Bansal. “I really miss swimming and it’s definitely been affected now.”

Despite the many negative consequences this pandemic continues to bring, Bansal has been able to find the bright side of things. “I think one of the perks of doing virtual school with the recordings was I can speed up my classes if nothing is going on, and then I can just take the classes anytime I want,” Bansal said. Gul has also taken up running, something she started doing after swimming became unfeasible. She has also taken up learning the guitar, which she considers an outlet for stress caused by the current situation.

Gul waits for things in the US as well as the rest of the world to settle down in hopes of returning to Jacksonville to be at Bolles with friends for senior year. The main thing that has affected the college process for Bansal is testing, as her SAT has been cancelled twice. “I hope that everything gets well soon because I don’t think I want to start my college like this,” said Bansal.