It is still crazy to me that I almost had to do school completely virtual for a whole school year. Doing school from home every day of the school year is something I thought I would never experience. One major result of virtual learning that stood out to me was the lack of motivation I had to complete my work and the laziness it brought upon me. 

Although sitting in my cozy bed for every class was much more enjoyable, my grades took a major plummet. In addition, online schooling was starting to drag me into bad habits. For instance, I would fall asleep during classes or sometimes not even join the class if I forgot to do the work for that class. I went from being a high honor roll student in middle school to getting multiple Cs at the end of each marking period. I'm glad we switched back to normal full days of school because I know if we stayed all virtual I would still be slacking and my grades would be dropping.

Ever since we switched back to face-to-face learning I have been on top of all my work and tests. I’ve been studying and paying much more attention in class than I did in online classes. I make sure I do all my homework every night and that I don’t have any missing assignments. Additionally, there were a lot of distractions when I was doing online school in my room. Although, with being able to learn in person again, my focus and concentration have improved tremendously.

However, in-person school may be more beneficial for my grades and schoolwork, but waking up at 6 am every day to catch the bus is like catching a cheetah in a race. During online classes, I would just roll over and grab my computer, one minute before the first period started. I never wake up in time to make my own lunch, so I have to deal with the school lunch. In my opinion, it definitely isn’t the best food I have ever eaten, but it could be much worse. It took a while to adjust back to in-person school, especially after being online for a whole year. 

All in all, as much as I miss the perks of online school, learning in person is certainly more beneficial for me in the long run. Online school caused me to obtain many bad habits, such as being extremely lazy and not doing any of my work. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to get the normal high school experience, before having to face mask requirements and other strict rules pertaining to covid. I still can’t believe in the world we live in today, where we have to wear masks every day to school.