For most people, they would rather do school remotely as opposed to learning in person; similar to the way most of the world functioned in 2020. However, there are a handful of people that would rather go to school physically.

It may seem as if that’s crazy.

Why? Why would someone want to possibly go to school?

There are a multitude of reasons as to why one prefers in person learning. Whether it’s wanting to see friends or prefer learning in an actual school environment. The reasons go on and on.

For me, I used school as a form of escapism.

Escape from myself, from people around me, or just life in general.

Once you walk into that school building at 8 AM, you are put under a whole set of expectations. You walk into school and your brain needs to shift to an academic focus. Whatever you are feeling, you have to turn that off, otherwise you will do poorly in your studies and grades. You move every 45 minutes from one room to another. Every 45 minutes it’s a new lesson, new teacher, new peers. You are in a learning environment where there are minimal distractions. In order to succeed in your studies and future, you need to make sure that you are focused on that, and only that. At least for the time being til you leave the school building.

This “schedule” that was instilled within us all changed when schools shifted to zoom during the Covid pandemic.

March 13,2020.

The day the whole world started to fall apart- piece by piece.

People lost their jobs, their loved ones, their health.

March 13,2020 left a huge impact on every single person throughout the world.

More specifically, that was the day schools announced the two week “break” due to Covid spreading. That two week break was extended to two years.

For two years, students were expected to continue their normal learning routine through the click of a button.

“Join Meeting.”

That button is the equivalent of walking through school doors. You were expected to do school work in a non-school environment.

Like many people, I have siblings who were also in school at the time of the pandemic.

All of us trying to learn in the same room or same house was challenging. One person is on zoom with their teacher talking non stop and no one answering their questions, and the other taking an exam on google forms and searching up all the answers, to another also on a zoom meeting trying to focus despite the noise coming from everyone else.

And then there are parents acting as if we weren’t even in school and expecting me to help them at the same time that we are reviewing for an exam.

And then there was the times when the teacher calls on you to answer something and you can’t press unmute because it sounds like a warzone where you are.

Learning at home impacted my success in school. Any care I had for my grades was gone. I gave up trying to learn anything. This led to my grades deeply plummeting in the matter of weeks.

Alongside this, being stuck with people 24/7 – no matter who, you will eventually get tired of each other.

Everyone needs time alone to recharge.

All of this added up led to me being in a bad state with no care for anything- including my academic future.

This is what I took for granted before covid.

My ability to escape at any time.

Leave and go where I want.

My ability to actually go to school.

And most importantly, having time to myself.