I asked my students (for extra credit) to select one COVID-19 artifact that they would suggest to a historian 100 years from now for an exhibit. The results are moving and heartbreaking. The only rule was they couldn't say anything medical since that would be easy (masks etc)

A lot of students suggested "unfinished" things. Half-empty course notebooks, unused Spring Break items, & unused Scantrons. The tearjerkers were "a glass door" through which they visit loved ones and the notes my nurse mom leaves me when she leaves for work.

Collectively they show young lives in disruption. I can tell them this will be generationally defining for them, and they can nod in agreement over Zoom, but that realization is still years off. If you have students, just be kind to them right now.