By Evelin Cabrera
While the 2019-2020 school year was one of the craziest ones ever, starting like a normal year and then ending online, this year has been one of the most surprising and toughest school years ever. It all started out as a two-week vacation everyone was happy to have, and now we have not been in a classroom for almost a full year.
The thing is, not everyone finds these circumstances easy, and not everyone finds them too hard. One thing we can agree on is that it is hard to find motivation to do schoolwork with everything that is going on. Even though the idea of doing school from bed and not having to wake up super early seems fascinating; at the same time it makes us students really unmotivated for school. This is especially hard for the seniors.
I am a student that tries to do her best because I will not allow myself to fail, but sometimes it is hard to focus on school. There are plenty of things going on for everybody that school just seems like an option. To even add on not every teacher is understanding so it makes school even harder sometimes. Before COVID there was pretty much a routine every day that everyone was used to. Everyone would get up early Monday through Friday and go to school for eight hours, sometimes more for extra-curricular activities.
There was a routine to it, and we were certainly used to it. It was something we have been used to doing for so many years already. After COVID hit, now we have to wake up and look at a computer all day while trying to keep up with school work, trying to keep up with personal problems and trying to maintain ourselves.
Life is not easy, it never was, but school was a distraction somehow, we would spend it with our friends and just make plenty of memories. After COVID hit we did not have that anymore and it’s a constant battle between life school and ourselves. For most people it would not matter because they have more years to make up, however for seniors this could cost them graduating. As a senior myself, this was supposed to be a great year but trying to stay on top of school it’s like a dreadful feeling.
We don’t know when the pandemic will end and life will go back to normal for students. However, after this year, I don’t think there is going to be a normal school year for a long time. Despite the lack of motivation, that transition from online to back to school will actually be hard on most of us. Most students I have spoken to think that the transition back to a normal school day will be as difficult as the transition to distance learning.
It seems weird that students will have a tough time going back to school, but that is the case right now. As of the writing of this article, there are no plans to start in-person learning, and many are not adjusted to the distance learning model. The earliest that we will be going back is April, but who knows what will happen then?
Sadly, this is the new normal, but things will have to change throughout the school. It is not the same as the years before where people were able to do their work in a classroom with no distractions. Now there are many more factors that play in school life, the pandemic, wi-fi issues, mental health issues, having to work extra hours and more.
Just about all the teachers have adjusted their teaching style and the work they give so that students can learn better. However, they can only do so much. It is up to the students to meet them halfway and get some work done. Please take advantage of the schooling that is offered so that we do not fall behind. Whatever we take as a vacation day now will only make our return to the school building even harder.
