It’s weird to have one common, global talking point. This virus is leaving nowhere unexplored and no one untouched. The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped our lives in just a few months; it’s a huge change for us all. Yet it also provides us all an opportunity to radiate our glow, spread our wings, and allows us to use this time to our advantage to grow, develop, and improve ourselves mentally, emotionally, and physically. Students on campus have said online school is hard, but they thrive through the last few months. Online school does have its advantages.

” Online school has brought many challenges, but with every obstacle has come to a greater outcome that has allowed for our educational growth and development,” states, sophomore Hannah Perez.

This supports the concept of when in the comfort of your home, It allows you to study and comprehend better than if you were in a populous classroom.  Online school also enables you to do your schoolwork in any desired location.

“A definite positive outcome of online school would be on how I am able to wake up later and still be on time to class. I used to wake up around 6:30 but now I can literally just wake up 10 minutes before class starts,” expresses junior, Navinder Sekhon.

  We don’t have to stress about arriving at school, 10 minutes early.  Also, we don’t have the 10 min & 5min bells ringing in our heads anymore. Still, many cons still lie with online school. Whether it’s managing your mental health or helping your parents’ around, we can all keep our eyes open for the positive impacts of this crisis and view it from a different perspective. We can also use this time for spending time with our crazy families, because we’re never going to get a chance to spend this much time together again.  If you’re going to spend another 3-4 months with your family, might as well try to click with them.

“One of the positive experiences I’ve had since quarantine is being able to have a closer bond with my family. We have definitely done more things together than what we usually do”, emphasizes Sekhon.

As we continue on in this pandemic, it’s really important to learn to cherish these moments that we have together. Not only does this help you connect with them more but, helps you understand them on a deeper level. There’s always a point in our lives where we want to pause and reflect for a while, and amidst this pandemic holds the perfect opportunity.  We now have the chance to step back from our busy lives, reassess ourselves, and consider what we can change when we go back to normal. We can evaluate and inspect our mental states. It’s the golden opportunity for personal growth. 

A way to help yourself grow as a person is to try something new or revive in a new or forgotten interest. You can experiment with painting, baking, cooking, dancing, singing, etc. We should utilize this time to our benefit to learn something new about ourselves. We may be apart, but we are together in isolation. I’m grateful to be here with you, all around the world, and — since you’re reading this — I’m thrilled you’ve chosen to spend some time to view the positive side of quarantine and school.

As Troy Bolton once said, “ We’re all in this together.”  We should take advantage of our time during quarantine to grow, develop, and improve ourselves mentally, emotionally, and physically and become the best version of ourselves.