When covid hit, high schoolers had many challenges they had to face. A lot of people’s mental health deteriorated and school just got harder to do. According to many sources, students, and myself there are a lot of problems that went on.  

The purpose of this topic is to show schools how hard it really was for the students and how it affected us so they can then learn from those mistakes or go a little easier on us from what happened. 

Covid started on December 31st, 2019 and soon after that, we got taken out of school in the middle of the year. Then we had a whole year off of in-person school and had to use zoom the entire year. This wasn’t easy to get used to and try to actually learn something, everyone had a hard time using it and figuring out how it worked. Almost everyone had their cameras off and there was little to none of the interaction between other people and the teacher. I know a lot of kids don’t have the motivation to go to zoom anymore, being in school helps you stay focused on the task at hand as well as talking to your peers. 

I interviewed a Capital high school student who was a freshman when covid first hit. She talked about her experience and how she felt about it. I asked Jasmine, a CHS student, how she felt mentally when covid gut and school was out, and she said “I felt as if I lost my social interactions because now I have severe anxiety being out in places after being locked up for the year covid was bad and everyone was on lockdown. I felt lost and even more depressed.” People need to have social interactions to strive in life and without that humans can feel depressed, having those interactions is good for your social and mental health.

 I also asked Jasmine, a CHS student, if there were any challenges with learning. She said, “Everything was a challenge with learning online, I am a hands-on person so it was very difficult for me not to get my hands on things.” This is another challenge students face, many people have an easier time learning in person and getting to have face-to-face contact with the teacher and a hands-on experience.

 I asked Jasmine, a CHS student, Did it affect other people you know? She replied, “It’s affected not only my fault but my friend’s too.”

This should show schools and mostly capital that we have all been through a lot and there are things we are still struggling with, so give us a little extra help or time. If this does ever happen again hopefully we will have a better idea of how to combat it and use different strategies.