As an extrovert, it is easy to say that the past couple years of high school have been difficult. I think it is clearly obvious that the COVID-19 pandemic and the quarantine that came with it had lasting effects on our generation’s mental health. We were not only forced to stay home for our own health, but also left in a weird place. We were suddenly separated from society and simply just had to adapt to it. 

The people who we are today are drastically different from the people we were on that last day of school in March, at least I am. I think that because we were deprived of socialization, people today are now able to appreciate what we have. I know personally, going back to school for just half-days was exhilarating at the time, back in September of last year. It’s not that I love school, or that I enjoy doing schoolwork itself, but the ability to talk to people in a classroom again was something I longed for last year. 

Trying to adapt to the introverted lifestyle we were pushed into last year was pointless for me. I know that some people loved quarantine, rather than having to sit in a classroom they could be in the comfort of their own house, but for me that took away the most important part of school. I definitely enjoyed being able to do physics homework in my bed, but also appreciated that when I went back to school, I could do group work and socialize with people who I wouldn’t normally talk to outside of school. Coming back to school after having to be remote for months on end made us, as a community, more connected. 

This school year, at least in my personal experience, feels like people care less about the “social hierarchy” of high school and instead are more interconnected. Sure, this might be due to the fact that we’re seniors, but truthfully, I think that the deprivation of a connected community is what drives us to be more social today. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that quarantine has united us, and we have a newfound appreciation for society and being connected with one another. 

Instead of looking at quarantine for the jumbled mess of days that it appears to be in most of our memories, we can instead use it as a landmark; a changing point in our lives that impacted everyone differently, but overall become a way to connect everyone.