Kendal Amos 
For the last year and a half, school for students all the way from kindergarten to college has been very uncertain. With the start, rise and spread of COVID-19 schools have gone from regular in-school days to full-time online. And for most people, including me, that change was quite the adjustment.
It seems now that in the fall of 2021, most students will be able to get back to the regularly scheduled programming. For me, and most of my friends, this possibility is something we’ve been talking about since schools first closed down. Now that it’s come to fruition, I’m filled with an array of different feelings.
For some, online learning was a detriment to their grades. For me, luckily that wasn’t the case. What became a problem after a while was the isolation and the space it gave for my anxiety to fester. Spending months on end in front of a computer, in the house without having to truly interact with anyone only made me that more anxious for when I do have to go out.
But despite my anxiety, I’m surprisingly excited to be back to a school environment. During the first phase of COVID and the lockdown, I was close to ending my freshmen year and now, suddenly, I’m a junior! It hasn’t been particularly fun watching my high school years pass without really getting to get the full high school experience, so I want to milk whatever is left of it while I still can before I’m off to college.
I have my worries though, and I’m pretty sure other people might feel the same. One of the main questions on my mind now is are we spending money and time preparing for school only for us to be sent back home after a few weeks? As everyone knows, the pandemic is not over. Having one building filled with hundreds of bodies just feels like a recipe for disaster.
For now, I’m choosing to think positive thoughts, hope for good things, and go about with my back-to-school routine for the first time in nearly two years.
By Kendal Amos, Junior, Chi Arts
Instagram: Kendal.amos
