This is shaping up to be an anxiety-inducing school year, and without our furry friends to give us their silent yet transcendent wisdom, we are essentially raw-dogging it through a year when we need dogs most.

When Pitt transitioned to online classes this past spring, many students didn’t like the change and were turned off of the idea of online learning. But online classes aren’t as bad as they might seem, staff columnist Josh Beylinson argues.

This past summer, everything on Twitter turned into cake and the hill on Bates Street was repaved. If you think that’s more exciting than what the opinions columnists did over Quarantine Break, you’re probably right. But see for yourself.

While I haven’t been able to control the behavior of irresponsible peers and administrators, I have figured out a few ways to curb the bouts of health-related anxiety that result from watching their recklessness. Here are a few ways that you can, too:

As hard as COVID-19 might try to cancel them, sports have persisted. Baseball, basketball and hockey are already midseason, and college athletics are set for a relatively normal fall return.

Welcome back to campus! Or, depending on where you’re reading this, welcome back to the same desk chair you’ve been sitting in since March.

COVID-19 is an all-or-nothing game, senior staff columnist Genna Edwards argues. Either we all work hard to mitigate risk to our fellow peers, faculty and staff, or one wrong sneeze and we’re done for.

Social distancing means that your social life will not look the same come fall. To actually execute podding correctly and safely, you are going to have to do a lot of contact tracing, and you’re going to have to have a lot of awkward conversations.

Leah Mensch and Paige Lawler, the opinions editors, can plank longer than any other editor in the office. Find out more about their desk here.

Artists spend their lives fighting an often uphill battle to be remembered and valued. And in the midst of a global pandemic, this fight is more important than ever, senior staff columnist Julia Kreutzer argues. It’s on everyone — not just creatives themselves — to find innovative solutions to foster an industry that has been silently devastated by the pandemic.