Editor's note: The following stories are the second part of Looking Back, a two-part series of first-person blog posts looking back at life the past year. The series is produced by Professor Steve Fox's Journalism 300 course in the Journalism Department at UMass Amherst.

In March of 2020 Caitlyn swiped right. It’s been a whirlwind ever since.

A first-year student versus a senior's experience.

The following stories are the first part of Looking Back, a two-part series of first-person blog posts looking back at life the past year produced by Professor Steve Fox's Journalism 300 course in the Journalism Department at UMass Amherst.

SmashUMA is a university club that was approved by the Registered Student Organization back in 2013 with the intention of just getting a group to play some smash. But with COVID-19, arguably the most fun part of the game was taken away; the in-person couch play.

“I’ve been failing most of my classes since and the only outreach I’ve received is from my advisors telling me my grades suck."

With many social events either canceled, postponed, or relegated to Zoom, it is clear that spending more time on smartphones to stay connected with one’s social circles is quickly becoming the norm.

In the final poem of the semester, Joanna Buoniconti, reflects on her time at the Wire and the mark that she and her classmates will leave behind on the campus community as graduation draws near.

Commencement will feature four in-person ceremonies with two guests per graduate

While the past academic year has been well known for its administrative failings, behind the scenes of the Student Government Association, now former President Sonya Epstein, experienced a difficult and tumultuous relationship with members of the SGA. The mental health difficulties of dealing with these confrontations, as well as SGA members spreading rumors about them, eventually led to their decision not to run again despite being only a junior.

In this week's poem, student poet Zach Steward, poignantly reflects on the Black Lives Matter movement as a student of color and poses the question; how can one process all the hate, the anger, the sense of injustice toward Black people in this country when it's so constant? The power of anti-Blackness is so deeply ingrained in our society there can be no way to undo it unless whiteness, capitalism, neoliberalism, settler-colonialism, elitism, neocapitalism and more are decentralized and the idea of white superiority is destroyed. Enough is enough. Black Lives Matter.

The Draglagos Jedi Academy aims to turn the antagonism of the lightsaber duel, a notorious big-screen stunt, into a collaborative pastime