Kaylie Kappelmann, sophomore psychology, non-profit leadership and ACT-In triple major, has been making good use of her newly found free time, courtesy of William Jewell College’s transition to online school in the wake of COVID-19.
On campus Kappelmann was heavily involved in organizations such as the soccer team, Alpha Gamma Delta sorority and Student Senate. Since returning to her home in Olathe, Kansas, Kappelmann has had to adjust to online classes, organization meetings and a new job. To fill up some of her time she has started working the night shift three times a week at Hyvee.
Here’s a look at her Monday schedule.
6 a.m.: Shift ends at Hyvee
Kappelmann works at Hyvee from 10 p.m. Sunday night until 6 a.m. Monday morning. She unloads trucks and stocks shelves. Kappelmann has noticed that since Kansas extended the stay-at-home order to May 3 the shipments have gotten much larger. Hyvee provides masks and gloves for employees and requires them to wash hands frequently and keep six feet apart from each other. After working, she’ll eat breakfast and get ready for class.
9 a.m.: Business law class
Kappelmann has some classes that meet via Zoom every class period and others that never meet. She has noticed that her workload has significantly lightened for the classes that don’t meet, as she has more time to do assignments. In other classes she feels the work has increased because she needs to spend more time teaching herself the material.
10:05 a.m.: Soccer meeting
Since the team can’t practice in person, they have been spending time scouting next season’s opponents. Kappelmann and her teammates divide into groups to watch game footage and take notes.
11:15 a.m.: Accounting class
12:20 p.m.: Lunch
12:30 p.m.: Nap
Since Kappelman works the night shift, she spends the afternoon catching up on sleep. While working nights was difficult at first, she quickly adjusted to sleeping during the day and says that she has actually gotten more sleep that she would get at Jewell.
6 p.m.: Wake up, eat dinner
7 p.m.: Sorority meeting
Similar to class, Kappelmann’s sorority has continued meeting via Zoom.
8 p.m.: Workout
Since she can’t work out with the soccer team in person, Kappelmann does her workouts on her own. She has suffered from multiple injuries and does physical therapy exercises during this time as well.
To keep a consistent sleep schedule and make working the night shift easier, Kappelmann stays up until three or four in the morning each night. During this time she likes to work on homework, do puzzles and watch TikTok and Netflix. Her current Netflix picks have been “Tiger King,” “Supergirl” and “How to Get Away with Murder.”
One of her favorite hobbies she has picked up since returning home has been yoga. She plans to continue doing yoga even after social distancing guidelines have been lifted.
Kappelmann has been keeping a positive outlook throughout this time, noticing a lot of good has come out of it.
“The positive is the time I have,” said Kappelmann. “Having a lot more time, being a lot less stressed, having time to do things that I didn’t have time to do on campus – time to do yoga, watch [N]etflix, time to be with family.”
After the stay-at-home orders end, Kappelmann plans to continue carving out time to relax.
“I definitely think I’ll focus more on taking care of myself,” Kappelmann said. “Now that I do have a lot more time I’ve been taking a lot better care of myself.”
She also notes that this time has made her grateful for the relationships she built at Jewell. Kappelmann sees online school as a reminder not to take friendships and her college experience for granted.
“It reiterates that I know I made the right choice with the college I went to,” said Kappelman of missing Jewell. “I can’t wait to be back on campus and see everyone. I really cherish my friendships now.”