In an interview with high school student Ella Duggan, she explains how distance learning affected her at the start, during the learning period and what she’s experiencing now that it is coming to an end. 

“I mean, I didn’t love it. But it ended up working in my favor mainly because I feel like I got to see my friends in a setting that was desirable,” Duggan states on her experience with distance learning. 

This response seems perfectly reasonable. When put in an educational setting with your friends, many people are tempted to goof around and end up not getting things done in time. With distance learning, Duggan felt that her grades actually improved. The stress of going to school was no longer a huge problem and she did all her work while on Zoom calls which worked with her schedule. 

“There wasn’t really any drama during the distance learning period, because I wasn’t seeing people that often and like, I don’t know, there just wasn’t the opportunity to spread rumors and drama…” Duggan explains. 

As the distance learning period comes to an end, students are now physically back in school twice a week, working only asynchronously on Monday’s.. 

“It’s honestly kind of nice because I’m finally able to have some sort of social interaction with other people besides my best friend and my family. And it was also nice to see my teachers in person, even though I don’t love waking up at 6:30 to get ready, overall it’s cool,” Duggan shares. Even though the amount of stress is being heightened, it’s being evened out by the proper amount of social interactions.

Duggan concludes, “It is going to be nice to go to school next year, hopefully without a mask, everyday. I feel like I really missed out on a lot of high school experiences because of COVID-19, so I’m excited to catch up and really feel like a high schooler,” 

With the amount of precautions that students are having to take at school, things like social distancing, masks and only seeing half the school on any given day, it should feel nice to have a normal school social life again next year. For people like freshman and seniors, this year has been a struggle. With the new high school environment for freshman and a COVID-19 safe senior graduation, it has all been a struggle. Looking forward to next year.