We all hope that senior year is like the movies: one of the best years of our lives. 

Instead of having our last year with our friends, peers, and favorite teachers, we spend it with a screen and a keyboard. Yes, we have Zoom calls, but I and the majority of my peers just don’t feel like it’s the same. I miss the endless laughs and listening to others directly, not through faulty speakers. But with 186,000 COVID-19 cases in North Carolina and no vaccine, we just simply return to the classroom-virtually.  

The classes are not as fun, but that doesn’t mean they are all that bad. The perks of online school are that I can work from the comfort of my own home. But even home, sweet home gets boring and I need to get out and see the sun. In order to get out more, I started biking and I enjoy it because for that hour everything feels normal.

I pass by McAlpine Park and see all types of people walking and biking and even rollerblading. I get to feel the wind on my face as well as the chance to see something new. Biking has helped me be more efficient when it comes to schoolwork.

Attending school all day at home has been a large challenge for me because I used to try to do as much work as possible in class so I wouldn’t have to do it at home. Now everything is homework and it just makes it for  10 times harder for me to get it all done. Some techniques I’ve used to get my work done at home is doing all my schoolwork in a separate setting than the ones in which I sleep and watch TV in. This has helped me be more productive in my school work.

Other than school work, I enjoy hanging out with friends and family but hanging out with a large group of friends is a thing of the past for me. Well, at least for now. I usually hang out with one or two friends at a time with a mask to limit the spread of COVID-19.

While many members of the senior class hope school will begin in-person later in the year, we continue to find ways to thrive while virtual learning proceeds. This virus has impacted me in many ways, but I am grateful for my health.