Nearly a year after students left the Forty Acres for spring break 2020, campus is still far emptier than usual, with many of UT’s faculty, staff, and even students Zooming from home. For the folks who keep campus running, that quiet feeling of a holiday break has become their new, eerie norm. In some ways their lives look more “normal” than many of ours, as these campus workers continue to commute, pack a lunch, and say hello to the occasional co-worker in the halls, but COVID-19 has dramatically changed their day-to-day lives. We spoke with five people whose jobs required them to be physically on the Forty Acres as the world shut down around them.