By Kannara Ruiz

Remember when we were all together in class during the first weeks of March 2020, and we all heard that there was this virus in China? Then there was talk that it would spread to other nations around the world and we started cleaning desks and using hand sanitizer in every class. Then, we were going to have two weeks to slow the spread of the virus and we all thought that it would be pretty nice to have a couple weeks off. That was a full year ago.

As the seniors last year found out that we were going to not hold a prom or even a formal graduation ceremony, and sports got cancelled, and classes were rushed to an online format, we all just tried to keep up and figure it all out as we went. Now, one year later we are all online specialists. Many of us are the tech support for our younger siblings, and we are still doing what we need to do to take care of our own business.

The past year has changed everything that we know about the world and in this article, I would like to take a moment to talk about a few of them. Has anyone wore the school uniform in a year? Those khakis and that shirt are something that most of us hated to wear, and now we got a year off from wearing them. That is one way to look at the good in a bad situation, right?

Now a year later it seems normal to wear whatever for class because no one sees us, right? We will have to get used to talking more in person when we go back to school though.

You may have to get used to working from home for your future career though. While many companies shuttered at about the same time as we did, many companies found that they actually saved money during the pandemic because they did not have to operate massive offices. Do not think that this will not affect many businesses that can have their employees working from a distance in the future. Looking at a screen may be in your future if you are working in any of these companies.

Many students have said that since we have all been locked down for a year, that not going to school everyday has made every day seem like just more of the same. Has anyone else thought that it was Monday, but it was actually like, Wednesday? Where did the week go? It might be funny to us, but some researchers are actually studying the affects of the pandemic lockdown on our perception of time. It seems like we are not alone.

If you think about it, this makes sense though. Without certain dates for projects to be due, going out with friends, dates, other school activities and meetings for clubs, and just the normal procedure of getting up for school every day, our sense of time and even what day of the week it is, can get distorted.

One thing that we should all remember about this pandemic is the shortages. Living in America we all are used to seeing whatever we need on the shelves whenever we need them. Remember back in March 2020, when they said we need to disinfect all surfaces and then all the hand sanitizer was gone? That shortage lasted for months, and I still do not see Lysol around.

There was the mask thing too. Before we all needed to wear masks everywhere, they were hard to find. That was a little scary, but now they are everywhere. If you forget a mask a store will give one to you. They would rather give you a mask than lose out on the sale.

Any discussion about the year 2020 would not be complete without mentioning, you guessed it, toilet paper. What was that about? Now a year later, we can all take a moment to remember the fact that everyone went crazy stocking up on toilet paper. This will be one of those weird but true facts we will be able to tell our kids.

The pandemic lock down has not been bad for everyone. TikTok exploded as everyone used this app to connect with others when we could not see each other personally. In 2020 the app got another 181 million users. That is huge. It is not very difficult to see why. Taking a minute to see someone dealing with a lockdown in their own way, TikTok has taken a difficult situation and made it a little more bearable.

One thing is certain. When we all get back together at school, we will all have a lot to talk about.