The Middle School Story Collective

Where we mine the ‘home learning’ silver lining into sparkly bits of narrative gold

Header artwork by Kaes Carter ’24

Excerpts from reflections by Middle School Students, capturing life during the home learning experience — visit http://blog.hkis.edu.hk/wp/wbory/ to read them in full, and more!

The coronavirus. Around me, the world spins faster than ever before… and I am getting dizzy. Meanwhile, the news blasts away shoving false information down my head. I don’t know what to think if I am thinking at all…

I gaze out the window and up towards the clouds. I take a deep breath and count slowly to ten. Life slowly slips back into me. Being stuck in this apartment makes me feel trapped and helpless, as though my voice is strained in a large crowd and cannot be heard. I close my eyes and continue to breathe. With each breath, I become increasingly aware of myself and my surroundings. I am quickly plummeting into the world of meditation.

Life is a blue sky, endless with possibilities. I try to imagine I am flying across the sky without troubles on my shoulders. The breeze blows my hair, and I look down at the birds flying below me. Problems and stress are just clouds floating across the horizon of life. Once overhead, they will never come back. They will shatter down and drop, drenching me with emotion. Happiness. Euphoria. Gratefulness. I am drenched but left with the hope of tomorrow. The hope of where people think of one another, before themselves. The hope that we can come together… not physically, but mentally. The hope of perseverance and life.

-James Ellis ’25

Nicola Wong ’24

Everywhere I’ve lived there has been something that has or is happening that is pretty drastic. I lived in London during Brexit, I lived in California during the Trump election, and now I am living through the virus in the world just like everyone else. I used to think I was an introvert, and would love to spend a day inside and read. But after this I’m pretty sure that I’m going to want to go outside EVERY day. I have learned how grateful I am for the small moments I’m allowed to go on walks outside or to the beach and experience the outdoors for a mere moment before I have to grab my mask because there’s people coming down the street. I have tried to keep myself sane by doing online workouts at home because it makes me feel like I’m being more productive. I have tried to adjust to home learning, but I know I’m going to be happy when we are allowed to go back to school.

-Sofia Mandoli ’25

Jacob Yang ’24

Things have changed so drastically, yet things have remained in a similar cycle in my life. Food, memes, games, procrastination, existential dread, temporary depression from said procrastination and repeat. At least, that’s what was supposed to happen only for a few months at this point.

When I first heard that school was going to be suspended, I was jumping with joy. I told myself, this would be a great opportunity to play games all day, gobble up whatever was in my recommended feed on YouTube, eat so many things I never would have eaten if there was school, and finally, talk to friends about pointless subjects for hours and hours.

But obviously, I wouldn’t be creating this paragraph without expectation subversion. I’ve realized, my stress regarding homework has now increased to levels of massive proportions. In class, there is usually classwork you need to get done within the class period, which is reasonable, and removes any stress when you walk into the classroom. However, in home learning, everything has an extended due date, and as a teenager, I have to admit, I honestly can’t resist procrastination. Also, because of home learning, this is technically the highest amount of homework we’ve gotten. Some of us might go a bit crazy from all this, added with homework possibly given from external tutors. Not to mention, playing games and watching YouTube feels empty all of a sudden, and for some of us introverts, school is the only place where social interactions can happen.

This may not be the most dangerous moment in history, or the most deadly pandemic either, but I can guarantee you that at least a few people will have changed drastically in personality when we return to HKIS.

-Vincent Yoo ’25

Toby Yu ’25

Now that things have settled down a bit in Hong Kong, my days are relatively quiet. I do my home learning, then I might go to a beach or occasionally to afternoon tea. Maybe I am unhappy about home learning, but some kids have no learning at all so perhaps it would be more fitting to be thankful rather than angry about this situation. All in all, I think that despite home learning being a miserable chore, it is necessary and something positive that could possibly come out of this is that it will make students appreciate school more. n

-Hayden Michael ’25

Jennifer Yung '24