On March 13, 2020, everything completely changed.  I was having a normal day at school, overheard the loudspeaker saying that we wouldn’t return to school due to COVID-19.  Reacting to the virus, schools at every level were sent scrambling.  Institutions across the world switched to virtual learning, with teachers, students, and local leaders quickly adapting to an entirely new way of life. 

Eventually, my parents and I had to go out to restock on supplies and groceries, I wasn’t expecting the world to be in such a panic.  Many stores were sold out of supplies.  Markets and stores were filled with desperate people in need of food and home supplies.  There were long lines, with many adults and kids wearing face masks, and latex gloves to protect their hands.  Though everyone was so close, we were so separated.  Usually, people would be socializing but everyone just wanted to protect themselves.  

Several weeks later, we had online learning over zoom.  It was quite interesting learning over a computer screen.  It was weird at first, although I got used to it.  Grades were harder to maintain online than in person.  I ended up learning over a computer screen for the rest of 6th grade and mid-way of 7th.  

After a couple of months, we returned to school on April 21, 2021.  Both cohorts A and B were combined together.  Although we returned to school, we still had to wear masks.  It was still normal just the fact that you weren’t able to see peoples’ faces. It was really weird when we returned to school in person because you couldn’t see people’s faces and there were these plastic barriers on our desks.  Everything felt very different because we’ve been learning online for a while and then we come back and it’s all different.  

Then a couple months later, the government allowed us to be allowed to not have to wear masks inside.  Even though a couple of people still wore them, most people took them off.  It finally started to feel like everything was back to normal.