Posted on behalf of Terry Chui, Associate Admissions Advisor, Undergraduate Admissions

When COVID ends, what is the first thing on your mind that you’d like to do? Travel the world again with your family? Dinner with 6 or more of your friends? How about just an old fashioned handshake with a stranger?


Recently I went looking for a car on Craigslist. As I pulled up to the driveway, I knew I found my next car. However, my budget and his asking price were miles apart. After days of haggling, we both realized he was just as eager to sell, as I was to buy. As I made my final signature to complete the paperwork, the moment of buying a new car felt incomplete. As I drove off, I realized the moment felt incomplete for me because I couldn’t show my appreciation through an old fashioned handshake to finalize the deal.

When COVID ends, many of us will revive our main relationships through a big trip or an intimate gathering. For me, it is learning to appreciate the unintended interactions I have with a random stranger while waiting in line for a coffee, because often those are the moments that bring a smile to my face.

From this experience, I realized the human interactions that I am most looking forward to when COVID ends are not necessarily the big moments that define one’s life, but rather the little encounters, which fill the gap between those big moments that define one’s day.