93 The “New Normal”: Life in the Covid-19 Pandemic
Anonymous
During the Covid-19 pandemic, I was staying in my house in Richmond Hill Ontario. The official lockdown occurred when I was in grade 11, age 16. However, Covid-19 had been a topic of conversation in my class sometime during grade 10.
I went into full lockdown after March Break of my junior year of high school (grade 11). We had gone home for March Break, and did not return for the rest of that year. While I do not recall exactly how long the lockdown lasted, it feels like the lockdown period lasted for months. My family avoided going outside at all, and we typically had groceries delivered to us through food delivery apps. I would grow used to online classes. After a while, the constant online classes with little to no face-to-face interactions made me lose motivation in studying. I believe that many of my friends and classmates had similar feelings. Many people’s grades dropped as a result of the sudden change, and to compensate, there was a board-wide freeze on all grades. This meant that our grades could not decrease. I was also a part of the school’s newspaper club, badminton team, and robotics team, all of which had to be permanently postponed that year due to the lockdown. It became a habit of mine to use hand sanitizer when I did have to go outside (e.g. to walk my dog, or on some occasions, to buy groceries). There were no social gatherings, and my friend also had to cancel her birthday plans with friends. During the lockdown, I focused more on practicing piano, working out, playing with my dog, and reading. I also had many fun game nights with my family, which would not typically have occurred if lockdown did not happen.
My biggest challenge during Covid was not being able to leave the house. After a while, constantly staying in the house became tiring, and I lost a lot of motivation for studying. I believe part of the reason for this is that I could not interact with my friends, classmates, or teachers in person, which made it difficult to get into a study mindset. It became increasingly difficult for me to do homework, and I developed a habit of procrastinating, which is not something I usually do. However, I did find online classes to be more flexible and emotionally relaxing, as there were less requirements. For instance, if I did not sleep well, I could have laid next to the bed while listening to a lecture. If I needed to go to the washroom, I no longer needed to ask. I could even eat while the class was happening, which gave me more freedom. While online schooling had both its benefits and drawbacks, I eventually learned to make the best of the situation and forced myself back into a study mindset by exercising, eating healthy, and communicating with friends and family.
During the pandemic, I spent a lot of time indoors. I used this time to experiment and hone a variety of skills, interests, and hobbies. For example, I practiced at least 2 hours of piano each day, whereas I previously made do with around 45 minutes. I also learned to cook properly, and would often cook for my family when my parents were busy. I also practiced my writing skills and wrote a few short stories and poems. I even won an award for one of the short stories in a writing competition the next year. However, I would also spend time just relaxing, watching videos, and playing with my dog. While I used to think of this time as a waste, I now realize that this time allowed me to recharge and reflect, which is something that I had previously considered unimportant.
To me, virtual schooling had a list of both benefits and drawbacks. I believe that I have a relatively favorable look on online classes, as this gave me more flexibility in my schedule and saved me time going to and from school. My school was a half hour drive from my home, so saving an hour a day was refreshing. I managed to spend more time on my hobbies due to the lack of extracurriculars and the need to drive to school. I also managed to get closer to my siblings and spent many nights bonding with my family instead. While virtual schooling did deteriorate my will to study, I soon overcame this obstacle and developed a healthier lifestyle and schedule that I carried into university as well.
I believe the biggest impact of virtual schooling was the lack of adequate education given in each course. For instance, technical difficulties resulted in less content being covered during each class. In grade 11, we had to skip an entire chapter in math class due to the slower pace of online courses. Additionally, online tests encouraged students to share answers with each other or search online, resulting in many students not preparing adequately for tests compared to if they were writing in-person. Although these academic drawbacks may have seemed beneficial to students back then, many people in our grade became worried about studying and writing exams in the future. We still had no exams in grade 12 despite returning back to school, as the school wanted the recovery to be gradual. As a result, first-year university became the first time many of us wrote an exam in 3 years.
While I believe that my age group was impacted relatively little compared to others, there were still significant detriments to our mental health as a whole. I have talked to a friend who had gone into a deep state of depression after a few months of lockdown. She was in a household that provided a lot of stress to her, and she would avoid going home each day until nightfall. I know that many people in my grade were experiencing some form of depression, whether it was mild and temporary from not socializing with others, to severe depression. Personally, I was fortunate to not have experienced any significant mental health decline, nor did my family.
One course theme that I believe is similar to my Covid-19 experience is blame. Many people at the time assumed that if someone got Covid, that meant that this person was irresponsible, did not follow proper safety precautions, or had social gatherings when they were not supposed to. However, I have heard many stories where this was not the case. For example, I had a friend who was highly vigilant, took all the safety precautions seriously, and avoided close social interaction with others, as she was living with grandparents. However, she also contracted Covid-19, with no clear explanation as to where the source could be. In my family, my dad and sister had gone to the dentist after the lockdown ended, with both of them showing signs of Covid-19 less than a day after the visit. We heard later on that other people had also contracted Covid-19 from the dental office. This is a factor that was out of our control, and the entire family got Omicron as a result.
