S 37° 47` 53.902",
E 144° 57` 33.675"

At this point in time, I'm still just a jaffy
but reminiscing on uni, makes me so happy;
I re-live those first weeks where we could all be together,
need to find comfort elsewhere so I can feel better...

Scrolling through the UniMelb Love Letters page,
I find posts that are so bold, so brave;
Screenshot of a twitter feed, 'Unimelb Love Letters', with the text 'just a love letter to my 69 fam'. In the image is the Melbourne University logo in situ to 172 reacts, 16 comments and 1 share. analysing this page is its own exam!

A space for all resides right here
we gather digitally from far and near
gasping at confessions, reacting to the banter,
anything to fill these lost nights with some laughter.

What else do we do through these COVID times?
I daydream of Baillieu; a place so sublime.
One time there, my heart nearly stopped...
it was so silent you could hear my pen drop!

I miss meeting people in the campus as well;
South Lawn meet-ups with its crisp grass smell;
coffee catch ups at The Spot with my commerce peers
knowing someone here could be the next Bezos in 5 years!

Oh Uni, when shall you be open?
COVID really got us out here hoping...
that we can go to uni and simply make some friends,
instead we endure online tutes and silences that don't end.

It’s getting too much
can you even believe
that it has been 8 months
since we’ve been to Seven Seeds?

We don't need to pretend
that it’s easy to cope
it’s okay to be upset
it’s okay to mope!

As we proceed into the New Year
we can act from a place of love and not fear,
that’s why you’ll find me praying
that 2021 let us get lost on campus again.

Maria Callista,

A Uni Love Letter

Poem

As we sat through 2020 with the uncertainty of when we would be able to return to campus, all students near and far experienced a myriad of emotions. This poem aims to capture the struggle of learning from home during the pandemic in a light-hearted tone, exploring various aspects of in-person learning which we have dearly missed.

✳

Maria Callista is a first year commerce student who pretty much sucked at art classes, and grew up with the belief that she had no creative bone in her body. Callista was surprised at how COVID-19 allowed her to discover she had a passion for poetry. This is what inspired Callista to commence a poetry project via @poetssolace and write for Compass Rose.

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