It’s February 2021 – a year ago we had in person classes, sports practices, clubs, basically any human interaction possible without masks or social distancing. Looking back on last year, I was in a totally different place emotionally, mentally, and academically. I had a good social life, a happy relationship, and energy to do school. But then quarantine started, and it was one of the most challenging transitions I have experienced so far, academically speaking.
Last year, I was in high school. I had a fair amount of free time and took five courses. Four of these classes were AP. When these classes were in person, I understood the material better and put a lot of energy to study for exams. I could follow along with the content, I was happy with where I was mentally, and I was feeling good about myself. Once quarantine happened, everything-my ego, my ambition, and my understanding for school – was shot.
When high school first transitioned to online learning, the work was fairly simple. We had homework and worksheets that took me about two hours to complete. But as lockdown continued, my energy went down the drain. I no longer attended Zoom at my desk and instead woke up everyday at 8:55 am for my class at 9 am, and attended my classes from my bed. I had little will to try to understand the material taught at the time, nor did I want to study for the AP tests coming up in May. And turns out, I didn’t. I winged the tests and my care for school went down. I did everything to get by for my last few months of high school.
This habit transitioned into my community college summer classes. I did well in my classes, however, my want to get homework done and stay on top of my work did not exist. I turned things in on time, but never ahead of time. I never used to do this. In fact, at the beginning of February, I was on top of my work. I turned things in early and knew what I had to get done. But once quarantine started, I was hard on myself because I wasn’t as academically ambitious as I was before. I felt like a whole different person when it came to how I approached academics.
Fall 2020 came, and online learning was not ideal. I’ve taken online courses before, and while it does give you more time throughout your day to do other things, online school felt like there was a huge disconnect between professors, individual students, and the student body. All I did was sit in Zoom classes back to back and listen to PowerPoints. I’d get put in a breakout room where none of the other students unmuted, so we’d just sit there hoping for the breakout room session to end. I’d join a club, but it was just a bunch of digital faces that I’d try to talk to, but it didn’t seem real. I attempted to do school, but I just felt like it was not normal. I didn’t really understand all the material I was taught, but I got homework done because I had to. I still felt like I was in some sort of “funk” and stayed there until the Spring 2021 semester.
The New Year came, and I tried to get myself to understand my classes fully. However, I realized that it’s a lot of work. Staying focused on a Zoom screen is difficult, taking organized notes is a struggle, and fully comprehending the concepts took so much effort. I feel like I’m teaching myself the concepts and all I am doing is re-reading the textbook. For math, all I do is read the textbook, and look up practice problems and solutions to teach myself the material. I watch Youtube videos, re-watch Zooms, go to supplemental instruction (SI) sessions, and I still sometimes don’t know how to approach a problem when it’s in front of me. The amount of time I put into school and studying feels like double the amount compared to in-person classes. I’ve come to realize that online school is more about diligence, routine, organization, self-advocacy, and time-management. Every skill that I had when school was in-person felt like it was no longer there once quarantine started. Currently, I’m trying to regain these skills back. However, it is difficult as COVID has changed my perspective, routines, and has left a lot of room for me to think.
While online learning leaves room for more free time and flexibility, it’s a difficult time to learn and put energy into school sometimes as there are so many distractions and thoughts that can sidetrack you. Meetings, class, clubs, social interaction, everything is now online and recorded. Zoom is the new normal, but there is no way around it.