FOCUS ON EDUCATION
What we learned from the pandemic Reporter Newspapers asked local students to respond to the following prompt, regarding their experience during the pandemic: “Take a moment to reflect on how the pandemic has challenged you, what skills you relied on or developed to cope, and how you might use this experience to improve your future.”
Khushi Niyyar, The Westminster Schools, Class of 2022 “Sorry, I can’t,” I apologized again, the words feeling dry within my mouth. Having both sets of my grandparents living with me during the pandemic was both something I was intensely grateful for and something I partially resent-
ed. I pulled back on a few activities — Cross-Country, Track — where I felt that I, and by extension them, would be safe. In the larger scheme of things, not going to a restaurant or missing out on practices were small inconveniences for a much larger payout, but it felt like I was losing aspects of myself in the process. I have always been a fairly hands-on learner, needing to feel the weight of a pen beneath my fingers to understand abstract concepts, so the sudden shift to my computer felt jarring. In addition, most of the aspects of school that I loved — clubs and sports and friends and freedom — gradually fell away until every day was one endless cycle. It became imperative, then, that I educate myself and find ways to break the cycle. I found new hobbies and interests, met virtually with friends, and gravitated toward my family, spending endless hours on games, cooking, and just sitting and talking into the early morning. The first few weeks and even months felt like we were in a time @reporter_newspapers BH
warp and I shunned regularity and routine. However, as summer turned into fall, and fall into winter, I decided that I needed to start creating my own schedule and developed a level of independence and thoughtfulness that I never believed I could be capable of otherwise. During this time, when the world stood still, I discovered more about myself than I have in any other period of my life. However, living through a pandemic was not all growth and development. Seeing the death toll rise in India and wondering which of my relatives would be next took a greater toll on me mentally than I realized at that time. It was not until my grandparents and family could get vaccinated that I felt the weight I was carrying finally lift off my shoulders. In the end, I might remember the mindless blur of Zoom screens or the new weight of a mask or the growing isolation, but it is that moment of relief that I will carry with me past COVID and into my life beyond. I was a person rediscovering my humanity, and I will be a stronger person because of it.
Meghna Singha, Pace Academy, Class of 2022
I was able to attend school in person, my parents were able to maintain financial stability and I had easy access to testing and vaccination sites. However, rather than facing physical or economic struggles, I faced mental ones. To be frank, I get bored easily. Between school, sports, other extracurriculars and social life, my weeks tend to be jam-packed all seven days, 364 days of the year (the one exception being the day after Thanksgiving when I am too full to even move). It was just full-speed ahead for most of the year and whenever I tried to slow down, I would find myself at a standstill, unable to pick up speed again. And then the entire world came to a literal screeching halt and my entire life was put on hold. Instead of always being out of the house or always being with friends, my life was reduced to the 90foot perimeter of my bedroom and the pixelated versions of loved ones. At first, it was challenging to find ways to keep myself from just scrolling through Tiktok for hours on end. However, as the weeks become months, I discovered more and more interesting ways to keep myself occupied. Soon, these hobbies, such as painting, developed into passions. The pandemic isolated me and pumped the brakes on my life: two things I always feared, but by slowing down, I learned the art of reflection. The last year has given me the opportunity to take a breath and actually take a hard look at my life, allowing me to prioritize the things that matter. As I finish up high school and move into the next chapter of my life, I know myself and my values better than ever before. By knowing myself, I can actually be myself which is the most important skill I could have ever learned.
Flannery Hipp, Marist School, Class of 2026 I say with much gratitude that my experience throughout the pandemic has been incredibly privileged and fortunate.
The COVID pandemic has reshaped our lives, and through the months of virtual school, locked-down summers, masks, vaccines, and countless COVID tests, we’ve finally reached a point in
each of our individual lives where we have found something that works for us. For me, I took to writing. For a while I had wanted to write a novel, and with all the extra alone time the pandemic offered, I thought it would be the perfect time to start! Between breaks in Zoom school, I started to write a novel. But, like all new hobbies, it was hard at first. Developing good writing habits and being able to balance that with school was challenging. But luckily the 2019-2020 school year was coming to an end, and I had the whole summer of 2020 to get better at writing. I don’t think anyone expected the pandemic to last more than two weeks at first. I certainly didn’t. But things changed when I started to only meet my family on Zoom or talk to friends on FaceTime calls. That’s when I realized that the pandemic might give me a lot of spare time, but it also gave me a sense of being lonely. So my made-up characters became my society. And that’s when I discovered that while it was fun to write alone, it was even more fun to write with someone else. One of my best friends was writing a novel, and together we connected over virtual meetings where we’d both just sit and write. I learned that sometimes having someone to talk to, even over Zoom, made writing, and life, a whole lot easier. Now that the pandemic might be coming to a close, I look forward to having those Zoom writing chats in person, beContinued on page 18 SEPTEMBER 2021 | 17
