What have you missed most in your student life this past year? Your fellow students, teachers, the familiar hallway to the lecture hall or your OGO group? The Thursday evening drinks, the house parties or the rehearsals in Luna? Or is it the all-encompassing real-time 3D experience of everything important in life?
More or less, the regular parts of the daily corona routine were little exercise, a lot of sitting at home, binge-watching television and gaming.
Speaking of addictive TV, the lonely corona times have also offered opportunities to watch documentaries such as "The Sunny Side of Sex". Sunny Bergman's film shows that even in a poor country like Cuba, the most important things are always available: music, dancing and sex. The best things in life are free. Sure thing. A great documentary; highly recommended for the Christmas holidays. And all this was possible, until Corona broke out. The closeness between people has always made life more bearable. But that is exactly what has not been possible in recent months, especially when stuck alone in your room.
In his book "Humankind, a hopeful history" (in Dutch: "De meeste mensen deugen"), Rutger Bregman describes that it is precisely in difficult times when people come up with creative and beautiful solutions and are not easily demoralized. It is that “no-nonsense” mentality that has always appealed to me so much at both the TU/e and in the city of Eindhoven. And we have been able to feel and experience that many times in the past nine months.
Students organized themselves in a platform to combat loneliness, the theater association Doppio has performed online plays, and the student symphony orchestra Quadrivium baked cookies as a sponsor activity. Not to mention the drive and endless patience of teachers and students to make literally everything accessible and negotiable via MS Teams. Since you have been able to do all this, you deserve a wonderful Christmas and a fantastic 2021 -- probably still with limitations, but also with unprecedented possibilities.
To help you on your way toward a positive and cohesive 2021, the TU/e Winter University will be offering plenty of fun and interesting activities in the coming period so we can stay connected with one another.
Lucas Asselbergs,
Head of Studium Generale