By Franchesca Jiminian
Remember about a month and a half ago when we all heard about this virus that was going around? Many of us, me included, thought that it was a joke, that it could not come to America. However, this whole pandemic thing was totally unexpected. Personally, I thought to myself, “This will never reach us,” but was I completely wrong.
Everything has turned into a complete disaster. It feels like no one knows what to do anymore. People are saying this is worse than the swine flu, but who our age even remembers that? Honestly, none of us ever thought this would get so bad, so fast and hurt us like this.
Now that the pandemic has caused the schools to lock down as well as every other “non-essential” business, there are many questions that need to be answered so that we can get through the worst of this with as little harm as possible.
Looking at the school situation, all students but especially seniors are wondering about how their work will count, how they will still get credit for the year and finally, what about senior activities and even graduation? How will students work from home, when some people do not have access to the internet at home or even a computer?
Administrators at PHS planned ahead for this unlikely event, and planning ahead in this game, gave all students assigned Chromebooks in record time. Who would have thought that all of that could be done in just a few days?
When Mayor Hector Lora announced schools were going to be closed for two weeks many students, myself included did not think much of it. Two weeks at home would be a nice break. However, by the time the two weeks were almost up, the cases were getting worse rapidly.
After a couple weeks at home, working on APEX assignments, we found out that this was going to a much bigger problem than originally thought. First, we were not going back to school until the end of April, then until the middle of May, and now this school year is shot.
Shortly after a few days of being out of school, Passaic had the first positive case of Covid-19. Everyday after that the numbers started doubling upwards every day. That was scary, because we were already in lock-down, and people were getting sick. Sadly the county of Passaic has over 14,000 cases (at time of writing) and the numbers are still rising. It is common that all of us know someone who has been infected.
However, it does look like things will start to get better soon. The numbers of new infections are leveling off and we will hopefully have flattened the curve. PHS students have been trying to stay positive throughout this whole crisis but everyone is going at least a little crazy as the news is just making people nuts. The United States now has more cases than China or Italy, which is very sad.
The entire lock-down situation has made many of us realize just how annoying family locked together can be. Baby sisters and brothers come in and out of our rooms 24/7 especially when trying to work. Moms are great, but sometimes we just are not hungry. Brothers who are yelling at full volume at his PS4, getting angry playing 2K. Many of our houses are just insanely crazy right now.
Honestly, can any of us wait until we go back to school? Now school is pretty much done for the seniors, with now graduation ceremony, prom or any other activity. This is honestly no fun and if I had one wish, I would wish for all of this to just go away. People are hurting and this disease is no joke, but we are all suffering to some extent.
APEX online school has been somewhat easier, for everyone that I have spoken to. At first many of us bombed some of the tests, but it got easier with time, and thank you to teachers who help us out to get it.
Many PHS students have been elected to help their little siblings do their homework, in addition to do their own. It is not easy, but it is something that we all have to do now that the quarantine has made us all stay hom in quarantine mode.
My three-year-old sister has online school as well. I find it funny how a three-year-old is supposed to do homework online, with my mom or me beside her, of course. She has to do things like read online books, sort of like the pdfs, she has to write her name on paper and I have to send her teachers a picture of what she did, also draw pictures of what she did throughout the day, her favorite season, etc.
My sister complains about how hard her work is, but I wish my work was that easy. My mom literally yelled at my brother every morning because he’s too lazy to get up to do his work. Maybe that’s why my mom got a phone call last week from his math teacher, my brother was so upset. We are all working and struggling through this together.
They even cancelled professional sports due to players getting infected. A whole bunch were tested positive. The lack of sports has affected my brother, and many PHS students, who follow sports like a religion. It is just one more example of how the world has changed so much so fast.
Every student I speak with says that they cannot believe they are saying it but they actually miss school. They miss their normal lives. They absolutely prefer sitting down in a class learning rather than being home, trying to figure things out on their own. They miss their teachers. Being home working from home, doing chores at home, and being stuck in a room doing computer schoolwork is quite boring.
One thing is certain, that when all of this ends we will all have a deeper appreciation for the time we spend in school and the way that students interact with each other and with teachers. PHS will definitely be a better place when we all get back to school.
