by: Cameron Cook, Vallo Vision News

John Limbaugh was a sophomore at Central Alabama Community College in the year 2020. For them COVID caused a very sudden change.

“This was back in March of 2019, when we were sent for the rest of the semester.”

John’s town was not gently going into the quarantine, the college waited till the last second to send them home, so they got thrown into it. He also stated, “For me it was a very sudden change it was a big deal by then, it was no question.”

He also lived in a town where it wasn’t getting talked about on the daily basis.

“I didn’t it see it on the news that rules were being forced, I first noticing it blowing up on social media of people not wearing masks in so I was taken off guard [and] behind the update there.”

It wasn’t just his school that played it off, it was his whole town. Nobody was well informed of the situation.

“We had to do our assignments online,” he said, “I don’t have internet where I lived so I had to use mobile data to keep up with my assignments and write essays on my phone.”

He thought the most difficult part of the “distant learning” was having to complete his work on his phone. He didn’t have a laptop or family computer that he could use, so the rest of his semester was all done on a phone.

With the pandemic getting worse and people getting the necessary items for their quarantine, and John has made a detail cleaning routine with the help of his mom.

He said, “My mother is a germaphobe and the pandemic made it even worse, so our house was put on a weekly schedule of deep cleaning, clean the bedrooms, clean the bathrooms and kitchen and everything like that.”

Not only did it change his weekly routine but it also changed having family over or him going to his family’s houses. He said, “It was very difficult to hangout with my family because, they refused to get vaccinated and restrictions, so social distancing have ruled [these] last few years.”

Now being a junior transfer to the University of Montevallo he has finally been able to socialize and be himself.

“This has been the first time I was actually able to get together with friends and socialize since the pandemic began.”

Now some are wondering “Will things ever go back to the way they were or will it be like this for the rest of our lives?”

When asked this question, John said, “I think it already has gone back to normal for me because, the normal I’m use to was integrated learning platform, so for it’s already gone back to normal.”

With him now being at the University of Montevallo he can go to college events like sporting games, and college night and possibly even intermural games.

“I’m sure the mask mandate will be upheld, but I’m not sure how social distancing will be considering the amount of people being there. I think Montevallo done a good job keeping up the climbing of COVID with the rules that they’ve opposed like the mask mandate and social distancing.”

Some students think that Montevallo could have handled things better, like lowering the price if you got caught not wearing your mask in the 90-degree heat.

Here’s what John thinks of the rules.

“well this is my first year of Montevallo, I say move-in day, they sent emails out the week of the move-in day saying that they would be moving us in on the first letter of our last name at 8 A.M., but I’m hold them to too much fault for that but I think they could’ve sent them out a little bit earlier than that, but other than that I don’t think they’ve done a good job on the restrictions.”

For wrapping up this interview John wanted to add something for new students whether they’re transfers on freshmen in the video below. If you want to get more information about how Montevallo is handling these restrictions on the Montevallo click here.