“Mountains in Poland” photo by Niko Gladysz, 705
Going Back to “Normal” Opinion essay by Jade Chan, 805 As school starts again after March Break, things are getting a lot closer to being “normal”, but what is our “normal” now? For the last three years, almost my whole time in Middle School, I’ve been learning either from home or at school but socially distanced and with a mask. This has become my “new normal”, so I find the sudden changes daunting. One of the biggest shifts is that masks will no longer be mandatory. They have been a part of everyone’s
daily lives for the past few years and they provide a level of comfort for us all. I, personally, will find this challenging because I’m still concerned about contracting COVID since I live with parents who are older, so I don’t want to transmit it to them and put them at risk. It might seem like a strange thing to say, but I’ve gotten a bit used to not seeing people’s full faces. Masks hide a lot, and I honestly like it because I don’t have to worry about people critically looking at my facial features.
fast for it to last very long. My concerns aren’t limited to just COVID transmission but are also related to the huge mind-shift that is required by sitting so close together. I’ve actually become more comfortable and productive in class by being isolated at my desk and using music as background noise to keep me focused, so I am hesitant to make the switch back to groups. It would be very awkward to sit with others, but avoid socializing with them.
Finally, one of my more serious conAnother thing we’re switching back cerns is that we will be returning to to is clustering desks instead of leav- our regular routines in the dining hall. ing them separated in rows. Although During COVID, we used a grab-and-go I know it’s important to move tosystem, taking our food back to eat wards a more collaborative environ- with just our class cohorts. We would ment, I still feel it’s happening too often watch a movie during this time, Continued on p. 4
Hillfield Strathallan College—Middle School Student Newspaper
