Written by Leonardo Pineiro
This is a personal essay written by Leo detailing his experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. It describes some things that teachers may not see that affect students when learning from home. Though this is just one voice of many, perhaps many of you may find aspects of it that resonate with you.
Ever since the coronavirus pandemic, my life has changed a lot. To be more specific, it’s gotten a lot more boring. I feel like I’m trapped inside my house because of quarantine. My house is honestly starting to feel like a prison. I never knew how much I’d miss going to school. My friends are at school. I get to make jokes and mess around with other people. I never realized how social school keeps me. I miss being in a physical classroom. I’d trade so much to be back in a classroom getting class work.
Right now, we’re still getting homework via remote distance learning. I personally am not a fan. Now, I’m getting the same work I would get in school, but I have to do it by myself from my house. It’s not that the work we’re getting now is more difficult, it just feels like so much more because of our current status. Now, the work is so much more tedious. The social atmosphere that comes with having a physical classroom makes it easier to work because I can take a quick 5 minute break and talk to my buddy nearby, or I can talk to my teacher for a little.
Another reason I’m not a fan of social learning is because of my home situation. I’m aware that more than likely this probably doesn’t apply to everyone, but it affects me, so I think it’s worth mentioning. I live with a lot of people. 6 people to be exact. Now that we’re all home all the time, it gets really loud and it becomes hard to focus. My house isn’t huge, so if there are people in the living room, you can bet wherever I stand in my house I can hear the conversation. One of the people is a toddler. Anyone who lives with a toddler can vouch for me when I say it’s hard to do anything. It’s like they never run out of energy, they just want to play and jump around the whole day. I don’t know how my parents were able to get anything done when I was a toddler.
Now, on the flipped side, I have to give credit where credit’s due. The fact that the assignments are posted well ahead of time makes it easier to make sure I have the work done by the day it’s due. Most of my teachers are posting assignments about 5 days before they’re due. If it wasn’t for this, I probably wouldn’t be able to get them done on time.
I’m really optimistic to return back to normal, but sadly, I might not get that chance. With this being my senior year, I may have already had my last day of school and not even have realized it. Whatever happens, I’m eagerly waiting for this coronavirus situation to be over so I can leave my house and socialize again.