Article and Photo by Robert Merrick

After months of online learning, in addition to the change of grading software, the first quarter of school was bound to be hectic for upper and lower classmen alike. As such, interviewing students to learn about their experiences was crucial. 

Freshman Savanna Urry had plenty to say on the matter, “It feels like a normal year, if a little bit harder.” Kayden Molina, who is also a freshman, had slightly different experiences. When asked to describe it in one word he said, “Decent.” When asked what he found good about this year, he said, “Spanish, Mr. Trejo is just the best teacher and has made Spanish my favorite class.”

While having some experience on campus sophomores can still have some rough first days. Sophomore Jakob Alves had an awkward story to share, “It was the second day of school, and I was walking down one of the halls in the main building, during lunch, and I saw three kids and one of the kids jumped up and knocked down a hanging clock. Later, after lunch, I was going to my fifth period class and I saw him, and we made eye contact and just awkwardly walked past each other without saying anything. At this point I don’t even remember who it was, all I remember was thinking, this feels like a movie, no way this happens in real life.” 

While it is very easy to point to things that have made this year very hectic and different it is important to remember that there are plenty of things that are the same or at the least very similar. One of these things is the transition period. In a normal year there is a short two to three week period in which school is on “easy mode”. In this time period teachers show extreme leniency, or at least most do. While certainly a bewildering year so far, it is important to remember that there are still plenty of things that are normal and hopefully it will be truly normal by next year.