At this point, most of us are tired of hearing about the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s been almost four years since that fateful day in March of 2020 when school went online for ‘two weeks,’ spring breaks were abruptly canceled, and our lives shut down. We all know the story, we all have our own experiences and hardships from that challenging time in our lives, but in general, it no longer holds daily relevance.
I think I speak for all of us when I say it’s not the very best time in our lives to reminisce about. As a member of the class of 2024, I didn’t even really finish middle school before suddenly being thrown into high school amidst world chaos. We were introduced to high school only knowing fully online schooling, social isolation, masks, one-way hallways, and six-feet desk separation. We ate lunch in separate classrooms and with only half of the kids present, the other alphabetic half of 4th period repeating the scene on alternate days.
It was a miserable time to combine middle schools into a unified group of high schoolers still getting to know each other. While freshman year is usually not people’s favorite school year, it is important for development and adjustment to high school. It is an overwhelming time, but it allows you the opportunity to adjust alongside your classmates, establishing new friendships and connections as you go. It’s a building block for the rest of your high school and eventual college experience.
The class of 2024 never had this opportunity. While we certainly did not have to contend with the disappointment and upheaval that the classes of 2020 and 2021 certainly must have had to reckon with, that first chunk of our high school experience was spent isolated and in consistent uncertainty. Despite this unwieldy start to high school, as I’ve begun to approach the end, I’ve found myself reflecting on the past four years, starting with my very first day of high school on a Zoom call from my bedroom in 2020. The barriers we have faced have shaped me into the person I am today and have taught me unique lessons.
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned from such barriers is the importance of socialization. I used to be an extremely introverted person, consistently going out of my way to avoid social interaction whenever possible. But, after being forcefully isolated for so long during my start to high school, I gradually understood the impact of daily human interaction on my mental health. I grew so isolated to the point where I began to crave any form of human interaction. This newfound realization is what pushed me to make an effort to connect with more people once I finally could do so. Even if it made me uncomfortable at the time, I continued to push myself to pursue conversations and establish new friendships. With this mindset that post-pandemic life prompted, I spent the rest of high school making numerous wonderful opportunities and memories with others that I might not have done otherwise. I formed a deeper appreciation for the simple joy that are the friends in my life.
The uncertainty of my beginning of high school taught me several lessons, too. The isolation helped me develop a strong sense of self-reliance, because while teachers certainly tried their best to help their students, we mostly had to depend on ourselves. The teachers that we always had to look after us, ensure that our work was completed on time or assist us, disappeared. Now, work was completed by your own means and your own terms. High school is supposed to be the time where one gradually develops that strong sense of self-reliance that you need to succeed as an adult over four years. The class of 2024 was forced to learn this skill in a month. Arguably, this is one of the most difficult aspects of the pandemic that we dealt with. I know so many that struggled with this drastic transition and, in turn, school turned into an extreme barrier. But, this challenge has taught me a lot. It placed me in a position where I had to quickly learn skills that take the average person years to properly learn, like individualism and taking care of myself. I learned how to quickly adapt to constantly changing environments as we were thrown from online to hybrid over and over, again. So, while stressful, being put in such a position of chaos provided me valuable skills and lessons that have significantly bettered myself.
But now, as I prepare to move on to the next chapter of my life, I look back on these challenges with a perspective of positivity. They provided me the opportunity for moments of learning that shaped the rest of the way that I tackled high school moving forward, more than a high school class could have. Better adaptability, flexibility, and sense of forgiveness. I hold a better appreciation for the people I used to seclude myself from and skills that allowed me to push myself to be successful to the best of my ability. Despite how these challenges brought me and the rest of us down during our first year of high school, in a way, I am thankful for them. I feel confident moving on to the next chapter of my life knowing I have the skills and perspectives these challenges taught me.
