I’m currently ending my second year of high school and have not actually experienced a full school year since the 2018-2019 school year, my 7th grade year. Covid lockdowns, quarantines, and regulations from 2020 to now have greatly impacted the way the past normalities of life function now.

Going to school in person was no longer the norm. Going anywhere in person, for that matter, was no longer the norm. We experienced an age of virtual things that no one would ever think would be virtual such as school, conferences, graduations, etc. Zoom and Microsoft Teams took over education. My 8th grade promotion ceremony was held over a large glitchy Zoom meeting where old pictures of each student danced across the screen in a ridiculous manner. That was our normal. With that being said, this sophomore year has been wild, from beginning the year off not knowing what most people actually looked like, to getting used to actually having to pay attention and participate in class again.

8th grade was cut short, and 9th grade was half virtual, but 10th grade ended all of that for me. We had to come into school everyday. We wiped down our desks before and after we sat down, we wore masks and got scolded if they fell below our noses, and we sat far away from everyone else in our classes. That’s how the year began. This was hard to get accustomed to and, for many people, it was their first time even stepping into a school building in over a year. Being away from people for so long caused my social skills to lessen, my anxiety to increase, and my overall ability to be in public, to plummet. I had no idea how I was going to make it through the year. I was falling asleep in classes almost constantly, it was hard to focus for more than a couple minutes, and I would break down whenever I became even slightly uncomfortable. At a certain point towards the middle/ end of the school year, my grades even began to slip due to how tired and overwhelmed I had become from having to endure the repetitiveness of school again.

Considering that this year was kind of a mess, I’m hoping next year goes at least a little bit smoother. I hope the administration chooses whether they’re actually going to enforce rules instead of constantly reiterating them whilst allowing them to continuously be broken. I hope the students learn to just use the bathroom as opposed to literally destroying them. And most of all I just hope we’re all collectively able to get back into the swing of school.