Freshman perspective of going into high school for first time

Darren Shapiro, staff writer|March 30, 2021

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Photo used with permission from Google Commons

Students practice social distancing before checking in to go to class.

When will we go back to school? When will we return to normalcy? These are two questions I as a highschool freshmen have absolutely no answer to.

For the first time I will be meeting teachers and faculty in person. It normally takes about three or four days for me to get accustomed to the style teachers will be teaching but this year it is different. With a pandemic, social distancing and distance learning for over a year now, getting back into the classroom will be a massive adjustment. For one, I have never been inside my high school besides using the basketball court for a game. I have never seen the classrooms, roamed the halls, or even been to the main auditorium.

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When the pandemic started my middle school had yet to go on a tour of Wootton. Schools closed in March and the tour was in May. I missed out on the one opportunity I was going to have to at least get a sense as to where things in the school were located. That will make going to school in an environment that stresses social distancing, limited contact between students and staff, distance between students and navigating through the building that much more difficult as I will have to do a lot of adjusting on my own. I am not looking forward to that at all.

There are definitely some positives about going back into the classroom. For one, I will get to meet some of my teachers in person and get a head start on adjusting to the building as only about half the students will be going back in the midst of the pandemic. I look forward to hopefully seeing some friends and peers who I haven’t seen since the last time school was in person. It will be nice finally returning to some semblance of normalcy.

In a pandemic it seems for every positive thing that occurs, there is a negative. As nice as going back into the building and seeing teachers and peers is, there are stipulations I very much am in disagreement with. I strongly disagree with the rule that students have to arrive at the building at 8:15 in the morning, 45 minutes before class actually begins. I do not like that I will have to wear a mask all day. Yes it is necessary but they are quite uncomfortable and annoying to wear. I wish that students could choose a small group to eat lunch with rather than being grouped together with students who share a similar last name to you.

I guess you could say I have some nervous excitement with a little frustration mixed in about going back to the school. Who knows, maybe it won’t be as bad as I think it will be.