Mental health is a topic that is not touched on enough, especially in high schools across America. As we know, many students were negatively impacted by the isolation and online learning that took place last year.
Students were unable to see their friends and teachers in person for countless months. In addition, Zoom and Google Meets were not beneficial and made it difficult for students to learn and retain information.
After talking with a few students, it is obvious that there is a mix between people who feel that their mental health has gotten better since returning back to school full time and people who feel that their mental health has declined.
Tatum Perry, a senior at Oliver Ames, feels “happy that we are completely back in person,” but she also fears that there will be another corona outbreak. She believes that “it is more stressful because we have to prepare for college,” but other than that, she has a strong feeling that “this year is going to be better than last year”.
In addition, Morgan Turnip, a sophomore at Oliver Ames stated that “the return to school made me more stressed, and it has caused me to become unorganized”.
On the other hand, some students are finding the return back to school to be highly favorable.
Jill Zechello, a Junior at Oliver Ames, disagrees with all of the negative statements about recieving the opportunity to be back to school in person. Throughout the conversation, Jill frequently mentioned how the switch from online learning to in person learning made her “so much happier because [she] is finally able to see her friends and teachers again”. In addition, she is finding it “easier to learn when [she] is not staring at a computer screen”.
There have been many mixed emotions on the return back to school, but in the end, we will all survive this year together. School can be stressful and overwhelming, but we all need to remember that our mental health comes first.