My Personal Odyssey | Teen Ink

My Personal Odyssey

June 10, 2021
By AJChisholm25 BRONZE, Boston, Massachusetts
AJChisholm25 BRONZE, Boston, Massachusetts
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Starting high school was exciting but I was nervous because I didn't know what to expect. This year we started around September 15th which is 15-18 days later than when we usually start. We started off fully online which was a lot different and harder than I expected. About 1-2 months after we went to hybrid which is every other day you go into school. Hybrid was better than online because it was easier to stay on track and I felt more organized. We were hybrid for a few months and the school shut down and went fully online for 2 weeks. We went back to hybrid and it felt a lot better after being online for two weeks. Recently, just about 3 weeks ago we went to full in person school and it has been very enjoyable. I get to see all my friends every day and the classes are amusing. High school is a lot different than middle school. For the 8-9 months I've been in high school I have learned a lot and it is a lot different than what I expected.  

During all online classes, I learned that you need to pay attention to everything in school. I would be focusing on something else for 1 minute and I felt behind. I think the work online was fairly easy but it was hard because of how different it was. Some Days my internet was really bad so I couldn't log into a meet. Some Days my Chromebook was dead so I was gone for a few minutes. I really liked how on Wednesdays it was a half-day with asynchronous the rest of the day. I enjoyed that because I could take an hour break then do the asynchronous work that was assigned. Once we went fully in school I realized how much better being in school is than being online. Being fully in school I could stay on track easier and also I got to see all my friends that I haven't seen in school in a year.

In the course of hybrid learning, I enjoyed it because being online felt a lot easier. I enjoyed the hybrid because we used a lot of cool websites that I’ve never used before and I learned a lot of cool tools that I can use in the future on projects and assignments. During hybrid Wednesday was still an online half-day with asynchronous work assigned after school was over. There are pros and cons to hybrid learning, and the pros are that you get to see some of your friends and you can stay on track easier. The cons are that you can get kind of confused and it's really different so it's harder to understand where you are supposed to be. I enjoyed being hybrid more than fully online because I got to see my friends but I was still looking forward to the day we went fully in school. I was thinking that the month of May would feel really long because every single day I would be waking up at 6:45 am but it has been a lot better than expected.  One of my favorite things about hybrid learning was that we could sleep in every other day.

For the past 3 weeks, we have been fully in person at school. It has been great and fun. I get to see all my friends every day and in my lunches I have other friends so it's really good. I feel like school is more enjoyable now because we are fully in person. During hybrid and fully online classes every day or every other day I would be sitting in my chair for 6 hours and only getting up 2 or 3 times for a minute or two. I also felt that the days would feel so long being in-person full time but they actually go by very quickly. It's almost June so we have a few weeks left of school then we are out for summer break. The only problem I have been having lately is that I forget to charge my Chromebook or my phone the night before school and my phone is dead or my Chromebook is dead and a few times both my Chromebook and my phone have been dead at the same time. I thought that once we went fully in school that we would shut down again but we didn't. I thought that we might be out of school for the rest of the year but luckily that never happened.

It has been a crazy year but we have gotten through it. There have been many challenges during the past 8-9 months of high school but I’ve adapted to all the changes. There are currently 20 days left of school this year. I really hope next year there will be little to no big transitions within the school. It’s been a hard year because of all the changes but I haven't minded it. The school year was different but wasn't that bad. I thought online school was fairly easy, then we went to hybrid and that wasn't bad, now we are fully in school and it has been fun. This school year has gone by so fast and I'm very surprised. Overall, even though there were many changes to the school year most of us have gotten through it and it's almost time for summer.


The author's comments:

This essay is written about this school year and how different it has been.


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