Illustration by Stephanie Perez, Advertising Manager
Article by Savannah Cooks, Entertainment Editor
What do you do when your life is in a constant loop?
Do you keep the cycle going? Or do you give up, knowing that there is no way out? Do you grow tired and anxious? Do you lose all hope in life outside the walls you’re stuck in between?
On March 13, 2020, the country shut down due to COVID-19. Schools went into quarantine, businesses closed and stores were ransacked by people screaming, “It’s Doomsday!” Everywhere we turned, someone was wearing a mask, we saw a few hazmat suits here and there, people were scrubbing their hands raw with hand sanitizer, our heart’s dropped when we heard someone simply cough, and people even went as far as washing their groceries in their sink with fear of the virus being attached to them.
But worst of all came the isolation.
The CDC advised that everyone should quarantine in their homes, meaning that they should not leave unless absolutely necessary. At first, to most, it seemed like an early summer vacation, but as the cases worsened and the death tolls rose, panic set in. The price of masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, cleaning products, anything that could protect an individual from this deadly virus rose and/or was out of stock. The businesses that stayed open made it mandatory to wear a mask, but how were we supposed to get the masks when they were out of our reach?
We didn’t.
So we sat in our houses and waited until it was so. We waited weeks. Months. A year. We waited until we got the, “You can leave your house now!” from the U.S. government, but that message never came. We waited for the, “You can take your mask off now!” but it never came. We waited for the, “It’s over!” but it never came.
We sat and waited, growing impatient with every passing day. Tired of being alone, tired of being cooped up in our houses all day trying to find new ways to entertain ourselves, and tired of the never-ending loop that overtook our lives.
Virtual Learning
To add to the dread, students were forced into virtual learning.
When the schools shut down that Friday, the procedure put in place was that you can do the work but it will not negatively affect your grade. Obviously, the teachers and the school districts still wanted you to learn. They wanted to finish what they were teaching, they wanted to give you the education you deserved, and they didn’t want the whole year to go to waste.
But it did.
For a few weeks, students did their work. Then one by one, they went radio silent. Students figured since their work was not graded, it would not affect them in the long run if they didn’t do it. So they stopped doing it. They had a three-month break, plus another three months for summer. That’s half of a year of not doing school. Half of a year of not learning, not socializing, and not doing the things that generations before us did.
What were we to do during this time? There was no school and we couldn’t go outside to socialize. So what could we do? Many picked up hobbies, got a job, started an online business, found new interests to fill their day with something to take their mind off of the isolation. But for many, that’s when the depression kicked in.
Battle To Beat Depression
We spent long restless hours in the darkness of our rooms with our only friend being an electronic screen. We were starved of social interaction, stuck with only ourselves for almost two years. Some even lived in toxic/abusive households and school was their only escape. How are we supposed to live our life when the world is crumbling around us?
Many depended on the internet as their only form of communication. The pandemic officially made us the generation of technology. Our eyes ached and our heads pounded by the constant exposure to the blue light radiating from the screen. We scrolled through a never-ending line of TikTok videos, posted absolute nonsense on social media, and our screen time hours doubled. There was nothing else to do, and at least it brought us some form of entertainment.
But that soon got old too.
It’s human nature to get bored with doing the same thing every single day. We woke up, grabbed our phone, went to sleep, and repeated. We are not meant to sit in one spot, to not have face-to-face interactions with other humans, to be isolated from our world.
The Lost Year
Then the 2020-21 school year started, and it just got worse.
The year started off with every student being virtual. School districts were trying out new techniques with remote learning, using Google Meet and Zoom as their platforms. It was new to everyone, as this was the first time in history where we were all living through a screen. The teachers worked with the students to figure out the kinks of virtual learning. And even though we never quite perfected the formula, a routine was put in place.
Log into the meet, turn on our cameras, turn on mics when spoken to, do what our teacher tells us to, and log off when it’s time to leave. It was just like regular school without having to leave your bed.
It finally seemed like a light at the end of the tunnel, but it just turned out to be a lightbulb in the loop.
Anxiety levels climbed, and a cloud of depression rained down on these teens like a hurricane was in their midst. Schoolwork became 10 times more stressful, students began to hate school even more than they did before, and even though we thought it would be nice to be able to connect with our classmates once more, we didn’t. We stopped using our cameras, and we stopped turning on our mics.
Why? We wanted so badly to interact with our old peers, so why would we pass up this opportunity?
Because it was just another form of social media. But this time, it was mandatory.
So it added to the loop.
Wake up, log into class, go on our phones while we completely ignore the teachers, end school, continue to use our phones, go to sleep, and repeat. It was just dead weight added to our already hunched backs.
This was our new normal, so we grew used to it. We grew contemptuous with the world burning down, and we made the best of what we could in this new era.
Day after day for nine long months, students did this routine. When KUSD gave the students the option to go back in person, only a few did. We had grown used to the routine and made it our new normal, having to switch it up when we had just gotten used to it was not in the question. It was easier this way.
Plus, there was still the threat of COVID.
Many people thought masks were uncomfortable, if they had the choice, they wouldn’t wear them for eight hours a day. Some feared for their safety. With our class sizes being 20+ people, there was no doubt the virus would spread throughout the school.
A Summer Unmasked
By the time the school year ended, everyone was over it. Not only students but everyone in the country. It seemed that COVID was never going to go away, so we might as well live with it.
People left their houses and hung out with their friends, businesses lifted restrictions, people stopped acting like the world was going to end and lived out their old lives.
Summer soon ended and the school year of 2021-22 rolled around. KUSD made it mandatory for everyone to return to in-person learning (with the exception of eschooling). And to reduce the risk of COVID spreading, every- one had to wear masks.
After almost two years, we were back in school. It was like a new experience after being away for so long.
There were definitely a lot of mixed emotions; excitement, fear, sadness. One thing we knew for sure was that we had to get back into the rhythm of things. After a few days, our world went back to normal, well as normal as we can make it.
Searching for Normal
Returning after such a long time has caused a lot of disruptions. Communication is a huge problem – including teachers. Students are disrespectful to the staff and school property, and they prefer to stay inside their own little bubble instead of going out and interacting with their peers, a result of being disconnected from society for so long. We got so used to being alone that we began to reflect that behavior in school.
For the upperclassmen, especially those in the class of 2022, we are so underdeveloped when it comes to getting ready to graduate. We still have the mentality of sophomores, so how are we expected to graduate and become adults? We didn’t have the same experiences that others had in high school. The pandemic screwed us up. We feel less prepared to go into the work world than the people before us because of the fact we were locked up for almost two years.
We forgot how to be natural human beings. More and more people are complaining about their mental health, stress levels have risen and no one seems to have a firm grasp on reality.
So what do you do when your life is in a constant loop? The pandemic taught us to keep adding to the loop, to modify our routine to cause us less discomfort. It’s up to everyone to individually think about how they are going to break through the loop and create a new way of doing things. Until then, we will all keep walking around in circles wondering why things are this way.