I wanted to share my coronacation thoughts. They are not particularly ingenious or surprising. They are not particularly hopeful. They are just words that express some of the strangeness and some of the loneliness and some of the missing of school that I feel. If you are struggling, I hope these words help you. If you are doing well, I hope these words touch you.
This is a strange time. This can be a scary and sad and frustrating time. I myself have good days and bad days as I learn to navigate the differences of life during coronacation. And sometimes the good and bad parts pass in just a few hours or even a few minutes. It helps me when the sun is shining. It helps me when I stay in contact with the people I love, and with people I don’t know all that well but was used to seeing every day at school.
There is something I’ve realized through all of this, which is that you don’t have to get to know someone well at all for them to make an impact in your life. It might just be that they say good morning to you every day, or that you share a lunch with them. You might never even talk to them, but you get used to having their opinions and personality in your life because you have a class with them. Maybe you just like overhearing their conversations.
Another thing I’ve realized even more than I already did is that face-to-face, personal interaction matters. While I am incredibly grateful for the other means of communication that are available today, especially during this time, I miss seeing people. I miss being in the same room as a whole bunch of other people and learning something with my teacher standing at the front of the room. I miss the feeling of sitting at a desk and having people much, much closer than six feet away all around me. I miss class discussions, both on-topic and off-topic. I even miss the noise and clamor and mess of the school cafeteria.
I also miss having to walk from the 1st floor to the 3rd floor in between classes with a full backpack on so that I breathe heavily at the top. I miss the sound of the school bells, heralding the school-wide shuffle to the next class. I miss the shape of a hallway, and the flow and jostle of people inside them. I miss the bumpy bus ride to and from school. I miss waking up earlier than I want to and going to bed later than I want to after activities and homework. I actually miss learning new things. Remote learning review can only be so stimulating for so long.
All of this missing could probably go away in a couple of weeks if we went back to school tomorrow. I would probably start complaining again about schoolwork and the monotony of some classes. I would probably get sick of certain people again. I would probably start counting down the days until the weekend, and then until the summer. But I would definitely be happier.