It was definitely interesting, to say the least. When we started the 2020-2021 school year it was completely online. The beautifully rainy day of September 8th, started with all of Belvidere North’s students waking up hours earlier than the day before. They opened up their closets and tried to find the chromebook that was most likely still in their backpacks from the school year before.

It was strange to not leave my home when going to school. But when I realized that I didn’t need to go anywhere and just needed to be in a google meet I quickly started digesting oreos and doritos.

There’s a lot more freedom that comes with online schooling. I can go use the bathroom and not interrupt everyone. I can work at my own pace with no worries of being disciplined because I’m not using my class time wisely. I can play GTA V while in class and get the same results as if I were in class. 

But there are also a lot of annoyances while doing online learning. The first one is the lack of personality. It’s not the teachers fault. They have no one to work with them; they see a list of names and “profile pictures” that were designated by the school because personalization is scary. Another major downside is that we aren’t physically there to learn. We can’t collaborate as well with our teachers and with our peers and I miss that. 

2020 has been a major year in american history. I’m thankful for the opportunity to live this year. I hope I can tell my grandkids about 2020 and see the fascination in their eyes that their grandfather lived in times from their history books. If 2020 has taught us anything it’s to control what we can with maximum effort.