The screen was small and blurry and the sound kept cutting off every couple of seconds. Most students were muted and had their cameras off.

Tabs lined the upper half of my screen, open to all the school work I had been given today. As I completed another worksheet and submitted it, I grabbed my computer and stood up. My brother was in the kitchen, his classwork forgotten as he was played Roblox. The teacher continued talking and I placed my computer down on the counter and started searching for food. I decided to make myself a sandwich.

COVID 19 had forced the country into a pandemic and schools and most businesses were closed. It had gone from one week to 2 months. My parents still worked despite the country being on lock down because my mom was a health worker. My dad had been laid off from one of his jobs but he worked in the afternoon in a factory.

Despite COVID impacting a lot of people it didn’t impact me much. I found that I preferred online classes because I could sleep later, and eat and use the bathroom whenever I wanted. It also meant I could do the work ahead of time and finish school early. I was also better able to understand the material because I could do my own research. In school the teachers only give you some information and expect you to figure it out only using the method they taught you but sometimes it was hard to understand the material. Online school allowed me to do work at my own pace and take a break when I needed to. I was even able to pick up an extra class during my freshman year because it was not necessary for me to have lunch.

The only negative impact COVID had on me personally was that I missed my eighth grade graduation and also a trip to D.C. I also was unable to go outside to buy things, or go to the park. I was mostly concerned about how other people were being impacted by COVID. I couldn’t visit my friends and I worried about how they were. My mom checked the news everyday to see how many people were dying, and she got COVID at one point because she worked taking care of an elderly person and she had been contaminated. She had to be quarantined for 2 weeks and was really sick. COVID had impacted a lot of people negatively but I was able to learn new things about myself.