Dallas Wood

As my alarm sounds, I know it is time to get up and start my daily morning routine

at the early hour of six am. The continuous ringing sounds blaring next to my ear are

constant reminders that the days grow longer as time passes by. Each day it becomes

harder and harder to drag myself out of bed as the school year continues. I start to

dread the morning car rides to school that were once reminders of my ability to have

responsibility and freedom at my youthful age of 16. In my head, it seemed like my

junior year was never going to end. Little did I know, the last day of school was right

around the corner.

It was March when it all happened. The Governor of Virginia declared that

schools will shut down for two weeks on March 13th, 2020. Students were excited. It

was an early spring break for some. However, as time went on, it was clear things were

not going back to normal as quickly as we had hoped. As things worsened, schools

were shut down for the rest of the year. This meant no ring dance, no prom, no more

lacrosse games, and worst of all, no graduation. My junior year was over in a snap of a

finger, and I couldn’t have seen it coming from a mile away. What is this “it” you may

ask? An outbreak of a pandemic disease, known as COVID-19 spread across the world.

It was unreal. The news had told stories of awful cases in China, but the United States

never thought it could have been this bad for us. By the time we started taking safety

precautions, it was too late.

My school year changed drastically. Everything became virtual for students and

teachers, who were both very new to everything being online. Students had to finally

become responsible and manage their time wisely. We had to decide when to do the

work given to us. It was a true test to our ability to stay motivated while we were on
 Dallas Wood

lockdown in our homes. Communication to teachers was simply enforced through Zoom

video calls, making it a struggle to enforce deadlines for students and have them

engaged in proper lessons. It was all very new to everyone but we worked through the

disadvantages together. However, my ideas about school have changed drastically. I

have a greater respect for the ability to be able to go to school and learn from teachers

in a real classroom. When a student, such as myself, is not given a well organized block

schedule with specified times of the day to do work, it makes it a struggle to stay ahead

and on top of the school work. I have also learned my capabilities of being independent

and following online instruction all through self-motivation. It was a true test to my time-

management skills. The whole experience was very eye-opening to me and

strengthened my moral responsibilities as a student.

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