Lessons from the Pandemic

FOCUS ON EDUCATION

What we learned from the pandemic

Reporter Newspapers asked local students to respond to the following prompt, regarding their experience during the pandemic: “Take a moment to reflect on how the pandemic has challenged you, what skills you relied on or developed to cope, and how you might use this experience to improve your future.”

Khushi Niyyar, The Westminster Schools, Class of 2022

“Sorry, I can’t,” I apologized again, the words feeling dry within my mouth. Having both sets of my grandparents living with me during the pandemic was both something I was intensely grateful for and something I partially resent-

ed. I pulled back on a few activities — Cross-Country, Track — where I felt that I, and by extension them, would be safe. In the larger scheme of things, not going to a restaurant or missing out on practices were small inconveniences for a much larger payout, but it felt like I was losing aspects of myself in the process.

I have always been a fairly hands-on learner, needing to feel the weight of a pen beneath my fingers to understand abstract concepts, so the sudden shift to my computer felt jarring. In addition, most of the aspects of school that I loved — clubs and sports and friends and freedom — gradually fell away until every day was one endless cycle. It became imperative, then, that I educate myself and find ways to break the cycle. I found new hobbies and interests, met virtually with friends, and gravitated toward my family, spending endless hours on games, cooking, and just sitting and talking into the early morning. The first few weeks and even months felt like we were in a time warp and I shunned regularity and routine. However, as summer turned into fall, and fall into winter, I decided that I needed to start creating my own schedule and developed a level of independence and thoughtfulness that I never believed I could be capable of otherwise. During this time, when the world stood still, I discovered more about myself than I have in any other period of my life.

However, living through a pandemic was not all growth and development. Seeing the death toll rise in India and wondering which of my relatives would be next took a greater toll on me mentally than I realized at that time. It was not until my grandparents and family could get vaccinated that I felt the weight I was carrying finally lift off my shoulders.

In the end, I might remember the mindless blur of Zoom screens or the new weight of a mask or the growing isolation, but it is that moment of relief that I will carry with me past COVID and into my life beyond. I was a person rediscovering my humanity, and I will be a stronger person because of it.

Meghna Singha, Pace Academy, Class of 2022

I was able to attend school in person, my parents were able to maintain financial stability and I had easy access to testing and vaccination sites. However, rather than facing physical or economic struggles, I faced mental ones.

To be frank, I get bored easily. Between school, sports, other extracurriculars and social life, my weeks tend to be jam-packed all seven days, 364 days of the year (the one exception being the day after Thanksgiving when I am too full to even move). It was just full-speed ahead for most of the year and whenever I tried to slow down, I would find myself at a standstill, unable to pick up speed again.

And then the entire world came to a literal screeching halt and my entire life was put on hold. Instead of always being out of the house or always being with friends, my life was reduced to the 90foot perimeter of my bedroom and the pixelated versions of loved ones. At first, it was challenging to find ways to keep myself from just scrolling through Tiktok for hours on end. However, as the weeks become months, I discovered more and more interesting ways to keep myself occupied. Soon, these hobbies, such as painting, developed into passions.

The pandemic isolated me and pumped the brakes on my life: two things I always feared, but by slowing down, I learned the art of reflection. The last year has given me the opportunity to take a breath and actually take a hard look at my life, allowing me to prioritize the things that matter. As I finish up high school and move into the next chapter of my life, I know myself and my values better than ever before. By knowing myself, I can actually be myself which is the most important skill I could have ever learned.

Flannery Hipp, Marist School, Class of 2026

The COVID pandemic has reshaped our lives, and through the months of virtual school, locked-down summers, masks, vaccines, and countless COVID tests, we’ve finally reached a point in each of our individual lives where we have found something that works for us. For me, I took to writing.

For a while I had wanted to write a novel, and with all the extra alone time the pandemic offered, I thought it would be the perfect time to start! Between breaks in Zoom school, I started to write a novel. But, like all new hobbies, it was hard at first. Developing good writing habits and being able to balance that with school was challenging. But luckily the 2019-2020 school year was coming to an end, and I had the whole summer of 2020 to get better at writing.

I don’t think anyone expected the pandemic to last more than two weeks at first. I certainly didn’t. But things changed when I started to only meet my family on Zoom or talk to friends on FaceTime calls. That’s when I realized that the pandemic might give me a lot of spare time, but it also gave me a sense of being lonely. So my made-up characters became my society. And that’s when I discovered that while it was fun to write alone, it was even more fun to write with someone else. One of my best friends was writing a novel, and together we connected over virtual meetings where we’d both just sit and write. I learned that sometimes having someone to talk to, even over Zoom, made writing, and life, a whole lot easier.

Now that the pandemic might be coming to a close, I look forward to having those Zoom writing chats in person, be-

Tomorrow calls for a new kind

of leader.

Every day, we connect bright, curious students with a community of support and opportunities that awaken their aspirations so that they can lead positive change in the world.

Learn more at westminster.net

WESTMINSTER

Love. Challenge. Lead. Change.

1424 West Paces Ferry Road, NW | Atlanta, Georgia 30327

Continued from page 17

cause if talking to people through a computer could help me write two novels in the pandemic, then I know that when we get back in person, every little bit of that time not wasted will inspire me to keep writing. If writing can get me through a pandemic, it can get me through anything else.

Rohan Datta, The Galloway School, Class of 2022

When The Galloway School switched to remote learning in March 2020 as the pandemic surged, I was initially concerned about missing in-person classes and lunch with friends. As the originally three-week virtual commitment dragged on for three months, I felt isolated and unproductive. Fortunately, the tightlyknit community I’ve loved since Pre-K came through with Zoom, game-nights, FaceTimes, and socially-distant activities making me feel part of the community struggling together.

What the pandemic did affect, though, was my entrepreneurial aspirations. In the summer of 2020, I was excited to be selected for LaunchX, an entrepreneurship program that helps high schoolers launch startups and get real-world business experience. I was despondent when I saw the email announcing the program’s shift to virtual for its 6-week duration. This would significantly limit my ability to do market research with face-to-face encounters and interact with peers and even my own startup group. Luckily, over the course of the program, I was able to draw on and improve my ability to reach out to other people – even virtually – helping my team pivot from our initial idea, create a minimum viable product, and find beta testers. To escape feelings of isolation, I reached out to mentors and participated in the program’s community-building virtual events.

Although I acquired knowledge of ideation and bringing products to market, perhaps the most valuable lesson I learned was the real meaning of “networking.” It finally became clear to me that online networking goes beyond clicking the “like” button on Instagram or “connect” on LinkedIn. It is sharing your personality and genuine interest in the other person – without using a resume as a script. Even though I look forward to seeing people, interpreting body language, and hearing without a desktop speaker, as we emerge from the pandemic with “Zoom” as a verb, I know that these online networking skills are here to stay.

Kate’s Club book offers coping tips to grieving families

Kate’s Club, the Brookhaven‐based non‐profit whose mission is to empower children facing life after the death of a parent, sibling or caregiver, is now getting its message out via a new book.

“We Come Together As One: Helping Families Grieve, Share and Heal The Kate’s Club Way” is based on the authors’ knowledge gained from working with families that are a part of the organization.

Lane Pease Hendricks is director of programs at Kate’s Club, and Nancy L. Kriseman is a licensed clinical social worker, buddy volunteer, and ambassador for the organization.

The “Kates’ Club Way” believes in empowering children and teens as they move through their grief process so they can become more resilient and ultimately find ways to thrive.

The book builds on that philosophy by providing suggestions and ideas so that adult caregivers have strategies and tools to best support their families. Plus, there are several chapters dedicated to helping adult caregivers cope with their own feelings about the death as they create a new life for themselves.

Kate’s Club was founded in 2003 by Kate Atwood after losing her mother to breast cancer at age 12.

The book is available at Amazon. Find out more at katesclub.org.

— COLLIN KELLEY