Wakeup. Zoom. Eat. Sleep. Repeat. When I came to South my freshman year, I didn’t expect my daily senior year routine to look anything like this. I expected to get my school I.D. with a goofy picture of me on it. I expected to run down the halls of South ridiculously early, screaming my lungs off during homecoming week. I expected to have a spring break trip planned with my friends by now. Instead, I’m rolling out of bed and going directly to my desk to “Zoom in”.
When I entered this school year, I was somewhat optimistic that it would work out in the end. I played through my last full tennis season with only a few bumps here and there. We were even allowed to rehearse for the orchestra outdoors when weather permitted. It looked like we were going to be able to go back to school by the time the district predicted.
The Zoom classes were tolerable due to only having three or four classes a day. I had a lot of fun seeing all my friends online.
It was also nice that we were able to get our spirit packs even though we wouldn’t be having a homecoming this year. It was definitely disappointing that my peers and I wouldn’t be able to attend our last homecoming. That being said, the district was right to cancel it because it would have been a hotbed for cases to rise.
As we were preparing to return back to some in-person classes, cases were still on the rise. This led to in-person classes being canceled until the second semester.
The district’s response was frustrating to the whole school. Without any student or teacher input, the district decided to elongate the school days. I was upset that we would have to be on Zoom all day. I was even more upset that students had such short notice, and none of our input was taken.
I was glad to see that the district backpedaled when students and teachers spoke up about the problems they had with the new schedule. The administration made a compromise, recognizing this time is challenging for everyone.
As we plan to go back to school in person this upcoming semester, I am trying to be as optimistic as possible. I am excited to go back to the South and see all of my teachers in person. I hope it will last as long as it can and nothing shuts down anytime soon.