As a personal anecdote, I suffered in lots of ways during lockdown, but have never had such successful university semesters before. I'm suffering from (social)

As a personal anecdote, I suffered in lots of ways during lockdown, but have never had such successful university semesters before. I'm suffering from (social) anxiety, so going to classes every morning was harder than some of the actual curriculums. But there were very few ways of passing while missing attendance. Often times, I'd go strong until about the last third of the semester and then just fail multiple courses. If not for Germany having free uni, I'd have had to give up on my degree for quite a while. Covid was definetely not good for my anxiety overall, and being socially isolated hurt a lot too. I couldn't see my girlfriend for months at a time, because we live in different countries in the EU. But for my studies, it did wonders. Lectures being recorded enabled me to watch them on demand and in different speeds. Online tutorials/seminars had far less of a hurdle to participate in. There was suddenly a record of most interactions over the course of a semester, making it far easier to prepare for exams. My job also moved online, so I saved a total average commute of 2 hours a day, which I was able to also invest in studying. Now I'm very close to finishing, but next semester will be back in person, and while I'm a bit nervous about it, the last 2 years of actually reaching some form of success paved the way to control my anxiety enough to finish I think. While I am very happy that things are opening up again, and some normalcy is restored, I really hope that we don't just go back to the old, because there were a number of things wrong, and I think a lot of it could be rectified quite easily.