Dear class,

I am extremely pleased with the work you all were able to accomplish this semester. I know we all faced some adversity over the past few months, but I feel like each one of you rose to the challenge admirably.

For example, I appreciated the introductory posts you made on Canvas during the first week of class. The pandemic, of course, made it difficult for us to connect in person. Still, I thought that you each did a wonderful job of making brief text-based comments about your hopes, dreams, and in at least one case, extremely personal family information.

And then, when we were forced to flee in the night in advance of the hurricane, several of you sent emails questioning whether I would give you an extension on your first project, which I thought showed initiative. Of course, the power outage meant that we missed three weeks of class, but when I was able to finally meet up again with the few of you who returned, I really felt we got a lot done.

Until the fires. Who knew that plugging all of our electrical infrastructure into the same outlet would turn the entire west side into a giant ball of flame? Not me. But I enjoyed the essays that you turned in before we had to evacuate again. Really. I mean, if I had to offer criticism, I guess they could have been more cheerful.

Anyway, it wasn’t until the four-week fire evacuation that I truly saw you all in your element. Conducting class via email quizzes is not ideal, but the internet in my bunker wasn’t good enough for a video call, so we had to make do. And I was pleasantly surprised—most of you eventually completed at least one quiz! Of course, I couldn’t grade them due to the new ban on Educational Communications Concerning Different Ethnicities, but I was quite [redacted] with your work.

Once we returned home and were allotted our full two hours of internet every day, I was able to settle down in front of my computer every three p.m. at curfew to check your thoughtful replies to the prompts I posted. I know a lot of these prompts were just things like “How Are You Holding Up?” and “Do You Have Access to Gasoline, and Could I Come Over and Borrow Some?” but I truly felt that your responses demonstrated an impressive level of academic rigor—especially those of you who had gasoline that I could borrow.

Your final projects were uniformly excellent. I do think it helped a bit that when the Cosmic Entity emerged from the bay, it destroyed so much of the city. When none of us were able to leave the protective shelter into which we had been herded like cattle, there wasn’t much to do except complete your assignments. Nothing like fifteen straight days of being trapped in a warehouse to keep students on task!

I hope you all have a safe and happy winter break, and that the COVID-19 variant that emerged when we were stranded under the rubble doesn’t transform you or your family members into the undead! See you in the spring!

All the best,
Professor Archibald Hoskins

P.S. I just posted your grades. They should be up on the wall behind the police cordon, but let me know if you have trouble accessing them. I’m still getting used to the new system :)