Three academics reflect on how to stay positive during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sarah Higginbotham finds that some of her most heartening experiences during this time have been while enacting unrehearsed Zoom Shakespeare plays with colleagues and students. She usually experiences telepresence events as rather flattened interactions, while insulated in their own island-box. But she finds Shakespeare transcends such constraints. While reading his plays, they forged authentic connections and experienced the range of joy, dread, loss, excitement, surprise, fear, and frustration that Shakespeare's characters embody. Jack Hardy finds in his online classes, he incorporates lots of low-stakes group activities and discussions through Zoom breakout rooms. When given a bit of space to chat with each other, students participate so much more and actually get to communicate, facilitated by having a shared task and goal. Finally Brett Ranon Nachman reflects that developing and finding community during these troubling times, even if people do not always share the same physical spaces, is a great way to remain optimistic. Connecting with good people who hold similar interests and values yields personal and professional rewards.