Just a couple of weeks ago, a bit after social distancing was put into place, my mom told me of an event she had just witnessed in the backyard. My two dogs, upon seeing one of our cats in the backyard, bolted after the cat and ferociously barked at her, before realizing who she was  and stopping. That day was when I knew social distancing was going to be tough on everyone, even our pets!

  In just a matter of weeks, the lives of people all across the world were changed by one little crown-shaped virus. The first part of life that changed was that schools had to employ “distance learning”, where students like myself have to attend school from home using video chat apps like Zoom. My first experiences with distance learning were absolutely hilarious. I expected the teachers to have the most difficulty adjusting, but actually it was the students. At one of my first Zoom meetings, I had the privilege of witnessing somebody try and multi-task between playing the new Call of Duty and listening to the teacher. Not only that, there were multiple students who attended the meeting from bed! Finally, right before the teacher started speaking, everyone in the meeting witnessed someone get yelled at by their mom to move to another room. Thankfully, now that school has been online for a couple of weeks, I haven’t witnessed anything like that in a while. 

  Recently, I’ve been seeing people speak of staying at home during social distancing as a vacation and a perfect time to learn new things and catch up on hobbies. At first, I thought of all the possibilities. With all of this newfound spare time, I could get through my oversized game backlog, read a bunch of new books, and maybe even learn some new things to prepare for when school starts again! However, for the most part, my time has been spent hanging out outside with my cats and not being very productive outside of school. While I do actually plan on being productive one day, for now, I’ll enjoy all the time I get to relax. 

 I’ve learned various things during this strange time period of social distancing. One of the lessons I’ve learned is that we take every single normal thing in life for granted. Before social distancing started, going out to eat every night was a common occurrence. Now that everything’s closed, however, even getting fast food is something to be grateful for. This is only furthered by the fact that my family has been having to cut down on spending due to the tough financial situation the oilfield is in right now. That means we’re eating homemade most of the time now, which is actually fantastic because my dad is a great chef. 

  I’ve also learned that we take going to school and participating in extracurricular activities for granted. Even though I was glad at first that I wouldn’t have to spend most of the day at school for a while, that quickly changed. Now, the thing I want most is to be back in the speech and debate classroom with my buddies. 

  Overall, the most important lesson I’ve learned since social distancing started is that as long as we support each other, we can make it through any crisis. I thought my 17th birthday back in March would be fairly boring being trapped in my house. That was before I witnessed my neighborhood throwing a birthday parade for me, reminding me that we’d all get through this crisis together. Even if we have to stay at least six feet apart physically from each other, we’re growing closer and closer in terms of friendship.