The other side of the coin
Blogger: Andry Rodríguez / 12th grade
March 1st, 2021
It is not new that life has changed for everyone nowadays, but for us as teenagers and students, it has become more than challenging. Sometimes, I think people around me perceive that life for students is simple and easy. They have told me (especially adults) that to have a job is a more complex task, but I disagree. I believe that not knowing which path your life will take is already quite complicated. For about a year, I have woken up every day not knowing what would happen next, uncertain of the future, and asking myself when this pandemic will finally end. Burning questions all over my mind have blurred my vision for the future: Would I be able to complete all my documents to move out of the country and have face-to-face contact when going to College? Would I be able to see all my friends together one last time before moving? Would I really have the chance to close this stage of my life to get ready for the new one? I won’t lie, it feels pretty demotivating. But this is the primary reason why I disagree with adults. Students’ lives, especially during COVID-19, have become more than complicated.
Imagine this. If it was challenging to quite understand a new concept in a classroom, a place where students would have the chance to look to their classmates with a confused face and desperately looking for answers, learning through a screen, having questions and concerns, being interrupted by multiple factors (internet connection, power, dogs barking, social media notifications...yep!) has become an extreme sport. We have to battle against all of these factors (and more that I did not mention), and try to stay connected, focused, participative, and motivated to continue our learning process, even in the circumstances we found ourselves in. If you are a teacher or a parent, have you asked yourself... How do we (the students) all feel? It has been months -about a year, actually- and some of us still do not understand or get used to this new student lifestyle. As teenagers, we complain about everything (part of being in this stage of life), but now more than ever our complaints are not caused by hormonal changes or just following a trend; we complain based on fear, uncertainty, anxiety, discomfort. We used to complain about going to school, waking up early, staying almost the entire day there, and now when we do not have the opportunity, now we can see the value of the days in which we could go, interact, and spend time with our friends. We can see the value of having all of those experiences that have been forcefully paused. We feel the nostalgia of not having a typical Senior Year. Every day is a challenge, and it is hard to find motivation when every day seems the same, and this feeling of not finding an apparent end to all of this is heavier.
Stop one second. I am not being pitiful. I am just trying to be a voice, to show this side of the story. I can say as a student, aside from how complex learning has been, that we have grown so much in other ways. We have found ways to keep up with our student life, ways to stay connected, and ways of attending even though it has become virtual. Today, I believe this keeps us stronger and intelligent in our ways of overcoming these situations. Maybe without wearing a uniform, but with the effort of being there. Even though it is frustrating growing each day little by little, and our effort might not seem as much, we are here, and we are still working. It has not been easy, but it is satisfying to say even though there is a pandemic out there, we are still learning, and as life changes every second, we have noticed that from every experience we learned.
