Gen Z Is Done With the Pandemic

Taylor Robertson wasn’t expecting his freshman year of college to end at home. The 21-year-old William & Mary junior spent most of 2020 away from his campus after classes went remote in March, and like so many other students, found that the virtual format didn’t work for him. An already-difficult academic year was even more straining because he struggled to retain information from Zoom classes. When he learned that most of his fall 2020 classes would also be online, he decided to take a semester off. What he would do if in-person classes didn’t start up again in the new year was a different, more daunting question.

A year later, Robertson’s classes are entirely in-person. His college has a vaccine and indoor mask mandate, and almost everyone he knows is living a “normal” life. His parents’ house was full for Thanksgiving this year, and he’s gathering with family again this winter at a