When will I be able to return my library books? Usually, this question has a concrete answer: two weeks, by the end of the month, or when you’re finished. But now, amidst COVID-19, this once simple question has been made much more complicated. 

Let’s take it back to Friday, March 13. It was the last day of school before we transitioned to online learning. Being the bookworm that I am, I found it absolutely necessary to check out books from the library so that I had reading material for my time off from school. As I scoured the wondrous shelves for the perfect books to take with me, I thought to myself: “Don’t check out too many books, because you won’t be able to finish them all before you have to return them.” 

Now I wonder, when will I have the opportunity to return them? Before, I was operating under the assumption that this absence from campus would be short-lived and I would be able to bring back my books when we returned from school. But COVID-19 has forced me to eradicate my brain of any and all assumptions. Instead, hints of normalcy and typical procedures have been replaced by uncertainty: uncertainty about when I will be able to go to school again, uncertainty about when I can rejoin my teammates on the field, uncertainty about when I can give my friends a hug.

When I ask when I can return my library books, I am asking when the day will come when I can enter those grand doors to the entrance of school, walk down the main hallway past my peers, climb up the stairs, pull upon the surprisingly heavy door to the library, say “hi” to my friends and teachers, go to the return desk, and hand my books to the librarian. But, for now, the best answer I can get is “I don’t know.” Because with COVID-19, the only thing that is known is the uncertainty it brings.