“Honestly just the social interaction part of school. I never realized how much happiness having people to talk to gave me. It gave me a different setting to be in.”

“It took some getting used to, but I have come to love my new routine. I am able to get into new hobbies that I never had time to do before. It has been a time of self exploration for me”

“I find one major thing to do each day so I feel like I’m accomplishing something.”

“I am using the extra time to exercise, take care of my plants, take my dogs for a walk, and get a reasonable amount of sleep. I also have time to catch up on my homework as needed. Also, I can finally go for hikes more (following social distancing guidelines obviously)!”

“School is taking up quite a bit of time this week, but I’m practicing my piano, organizing, and trying to stay connected with my friends and extended family.”

“I am working, taking my dog on walks, online school takes up a good chunk of my day, watching Netflix, coloring, and reading. It has taken a bit of adjusting but my routine now has been what it is since the middle of March so it is my new “normal”.”

“I currently take half of my classes on ARISE, the online school in the district, and I have been since January, so this isn’t that big of a change for me. The classes I have there are Earth science, Forensic science, English, and World history, which are all do-able online because they don’t really require hands-on work and are just answering questions and creating documents. The other half of my classes that I take at Craig are all hands-on classes, like Manufacturing, and Ceramics. I figured “oh, maybe they won’t have us do very much work, since there isn’t much we really CAN do without metal and clay to work with.” I was wrong. Somehow they find ways to still have us do stuff like watching videos and answering questions, like you would with an online English or Science class. If you ask me, it kinda just defeats the purpose of having a hands-on class like that. It just doesn’t feel interesting enough to focus on at all and is mostly just a super simple review, even stuff we definitely already learned in the class in the first place, which makes it even more boring.”

“Nothing, they are boring and I find them unnecessary. We should have just gotten this time to spend time with family as where some students have family that are ill and want to cherish time with them but may not get able to because now they are backed up on school work. They should have just passed/failed us from the grades we had before going into quarantine.”

“I believe that this whole experience is a matter of perspective. I started out with having quite a negative perspective. For example, I am never going to get into the college I want because of the pass/fail system, I am never going to be able to figure this work out if my teachers aren’t sitting right there to answer my questions, etc. After a while of thinking, I had a change in perspective. I mean yes, this sucks, but I thought to myself, why focus on everything that I am losing from this experience when there is so much I am gaining from this? Sure, we may have a lot of teachers that we don’t have a lot of access to, but we learn independence and to struggle through it. If we are all dependent on our teachers, how will we succeed in life? We need our teachers, but we still need to be able to be successful without being dependent on them. My advice to people is to try and change their perspective to positive too!”

“I really wish the school district would’ve let us go to school that Monday and Tuesday before the statewide lockdown. Then we could’ve known we weren’t coming back and exchanged information. Say goodbye. And pick up our stuff”

“My heart goes out to anyone who is struggling right now, either with a loved one losing a job, worrying about where their next meal is coming from, living in an abusive household, etc. I hope everyone is staying safe, positive, and healthy. I also hope when this passes, we come out of it more grateful and caring than we were. I think COVID-19 was a major wake up call for us all.”

“Being quarantined may not be the best thing. But it is giving people a chance to create memories with family members and you get to find new things to do. This will be a time we will never forget and honestly, when I look back at this when I am older, I will think of the good things that came out of it.”