A Change
Due to the recent rapid development of the new corona virus everyone’s lives have changed. When many first heard about it no one thought it could affect them. Now almost everyone you know has been affected by it on a daily basis. Whether it be from contracting the virus, the social distancing measures put in place, or the loss of a job. It is now that it is causing a national change in the way students learn and interact with each other. Schools are closed and students’ typical learning schedules have been disrupted or changed completely.
For most high school students a typical week consists of 6 and a half hours of school 5 days a week. As of March 16th 2020 that is no longer a typical routine. As you know there is a worldwide pandemic, a situation that is continuously intensifying daily. No longer are teenagers waking up early in the morning to get ready for school to complete various different pages of work. Many high school students have changed their morning routines completely. Waking up before 8 o’clock is now a rarity for many, 10:45am-11:45am lunches no longer exist. Instead they have been substituted for 1:45pm-2:45pm breakfasts. There is no longer a 6 and a half hour chunk of social interaction for students. Many now spend time alone or inside with immediate family.
Not only have schedules changed but so have lifestyles. Going out to lunch with your friends to your favorite local eatery is now a thing of the past. With strict new social distancing orders students are now missing out on education and social exposure. Spending time with friends in classes that you love is no longer a reality. Spending time with friends now means a face-time call, an Xbox party, or a video chat. The current situation is extremely unfortunate, especially for the graduating class. The last months of school typically focused on senior ball, graduation, summer plans, and spending the last months of being all together have become completely different.
It seems as if this year’s class will be missing out on some of the best of times typically spent in high school. The times that we have all been looking forward to since the first day of freshman year. The increasing reality that high school diplomas could be given through email is a devastating thought. A graduation ceremony will no longer be a possibility if the virus continues to increase on a national level. For some seniors going away to college might also be affected. With the surrounding uncertainty of the situation and how it will affect us it is nice to think that we will be back in school by late May. If all goes correctly and students are able to come back to school; hopefully the life of a typical high school student can go back to normal with hours full of doing school work and spending time with friends instead of hours in bed, and days spent doing online work to finish the year.