TEEN LIFE DURING LOCKDOWN

WORDS JOFFREE KING MARBELLA STUDENT

I admit that when lockdown was first announced in March, my friends and I were quite relieved. It is a bit scary to think that although we are young and at a relatively low risk of being severely affected by the virus, we could potentially be carriers. It’s funny how prior to the virus, my friends and I would frequently complain about having to get up early. I dreamed of being able to study online or of being homeschooled.

It is nice to be home more, but I miss everyday things like doing sport at the gym, hanging around friends at lunch, and being able to access teachers in person. Google Meets and Hangouts are cool, but I miss having my teacher right next to me explaining a difficult Maths or Physics problem.

There have been quite a few funny moments during online class many of us have chuckled about – including family members passing behind us on camera, babies and toddlers interrupting classes in a cute way, and of course, classmates showing off their pets.

These moments make me realise how much I miss them and reveal a bit more about everyone – how we live, how we dress outside school, what our environment looks like. We even have virtual PE classes, with our teacher observing that we are giving each exercise our all. You can’t say that schools aren’t pulling their weight. They are doing as much as they can to make life seem ‘normal’.

It has been a big relief for our younger brothers and sisters since those aged 14 and below were allowed to take a walk outside, but also a relief for their older siblings. Some of us are studying for pretty hard exams, so having our little siblings enter and interrupt our work can be a little challenging. That moment when mum or dad takes them outside to let loose a bit of their abundant energy is quite a relief for us as well.

Life during lockdown has made me very grateful to my teachers and my school. Most have dreamed up creative ways for us to continue working. For instance, for PE we were asked to create collaborative video projects by groups. Each group had to focus on one exercise form (for instance, weights), and all of us had to record ourselves performing different sets.

One person in our group then edited the video, with pretty cool music and effects. Our year put together a number of videos comprising 30-minute workouts. Some of us are now thinking of putting up a site where we regularly share workouts others can stream online.

My French teacher is hilarious. She makes us learn sign language to represent the words of French songs. It’s an amazing way to retain vocabulary as it involves whole-body movement. There are some words I think I will never forget. The more you laugh and enjoy yourself during online study, the more fulfilling the classes seem.

Lockdown isn’t all about study, of course. My friends and I have embraced Zoom as a way to chat, and we also connect on our favourite online games – Fortnite, GTA, Rocket League, and the like. Something that has been very different is that many of us are connecting with new friends from school that we may not have interacted with in the past.

Things are a lot less ‘cliquey’. I was surprised to receive a couple of WhatsApp messages from people I didn’t use to chat to much at school. One calls me up frequently during the week and we bond over music. I never knew her tastes in the past; it was just something that was never discussed. That is probably the best thing about lockdown, the breaking down of barriers and finding things in common.

Believe it or not, time commuting to and from school matters, as does time wasted in the morning and during pickup. Just half an hour more of leisure means being able to reach out, compare reading or study material, and pose questions to each other online. In fact, communication has really improved between many of us, and I was happy to help classmates with questions (many helped me as well).

When we return, things will undoubtedly be very different. We have built new friendships, found better ways to communicate, and become more efficient at working on group projects. We are more empathetic towards each other and more motivated to match our teachers’ efforts by producing good work. When life returns to normal, we will always look back on this unique moment in our school life; I believe doing so will enable us to be more mindful, more grateful to just be in the here and now.