Jandrea...so far

Dear Psych 124 and Psych 145 students, I’m sure you have heard about the BOR approval of the recommendations of the Presidential Advisory Council (PAC). Pending the issuance of the Implementing Procedures and Guidelines, the Psych department faculty will meet on April 22 to come up with measures that will take into utmost consideration the situation and sentiments of students!  Rest assured that your Psych teachers remain to be conscious of your needs during this period! These last few weeks has been difficult for me as well. Being a teacher is not the only role I have to play in this crisis situation. Every single day, I have to make a decision as to which role takes precedence over the others. Please pardon me if in the past few weeks, being a wife, mother, and household manager have been my priority. Sometimes, even the seemingly simple task of making sure of having food on our table takes most of my attention. I have also lost time and energy mourning the deaths of people I kno

  For days, since the COVID-19 became pandemic, I had been silently shedding tears for many reasons. One day, for the death of the father of a former student. On another day, by news that former students had volunteered to stay on on as medical interns in PGH even if their program had been suspensed. It was as if I could feel the anxiety of the families left behind while these future doctors risked their young lives.  Following these days, crying had become a daily occurrence as I went through both sad news of more deaths and alarming information about the spread of the disease. Work demands were also raising my anxiety levels and I was slowly being pulled into an emotional state that I could say was bordering on desperation. But nothing would prepare me for the devastating news that a friend of mine had died of severe pneumonia related to the dreaded virus. We were just almost through the first week of the quarantine and somehow the gravity of the situation did not hit me until I r