Starting School Again After 7 Months In A Global Pandemic

School has always been a hit or miss for me. I'm not nessicarly the most academically focused person. I prefer being involved in sports and fine arts, and that's why I love my school. They don't make you focus solely school; there is a balance between academics and extracurriculars. March is a weird time in the school calendar. It's like the Thursday of the week. Almost there, but not quite. In March, school wasn't my favorite place in the world, but I still enjoyed my classes and my teachers. Little did we all know that we wouldn't see eachother for the next 6 months. I remember the Thursday before Spring Break we had a talk about possibly having an extra week off for spring break due to the fact that Austin was starting to sprout COVID-19 cases, but we never thought it would be more than that. We were very wrong.

That extra week turned into an extra month, and that extra month turned into 6. We finished the rest of the school year online, which was one of the weirdest experiences of my life. You feel so socially isolated, and my ADHD was easily triggered from being stuck in my room for 6 hours a day. On top of that, all sports and extracurriculars were canceled for the rest of the school year so I couldn't go play sports to get rid of energy and get the exercise I needed. It's like some sort of switch that got turned off and suddenly life was frozen. Everything was (and is) so different. Now that we've been in quarantine for almost 7 months, a lot has changed in our world. So much is shut down, tons of people have lost jobs, and everywhere we go we always have to wear face masks. Who would've thought 8 months ago that not even a month later you would be refused entry into a store because you didn't bring a cloth face covering with you? It feels like we are in a movie or something. And because it's been almost a year of this, it feels somewhat normal... in exception to the school situation.

Last Wednesday was the most unconventional first day of school ever. I normally love the first day, because you get to see everyone you haven't seen all summer; your teachers, your friends, etc. and just get back to normal life. But life right now is the opposite of normal. . Going to my first homeroom class of the year online made me so sad. I just wish I could see and hug everyone and go back to my classes. Another favorite part of the beginning of the year, is visiting all

your classes and getting a vibe of the class for the year. But we can’t do that online.

I’ve decided this blog post is far from over. I want to update everyone and my future self with all of the things going on in life- especially with school. So this post will constantly be updated. Stay tuned 🤗.