It’s almost been an entire calendar year since the beginning of quarantine – March 13, when we thought it was just going to be a two-week break from school with that warm spring-break weather. The restrictions hadn’t quite set in yet – we could still spend time with our friends outside, masks were reserved for medical personnel, and people were busy talking about Tiger King. Now, it’s too cold outside to really spend much time outside and Tiger King is a distant memory.

     It’s been a long time, and we’re all itching for things to get back to normal. Virtual learning is a brain drain and we’re all missing the social aspect of school – just the other day I found myself thinking about the lunchroom and remembering the grating noise and constant stickiness fondly. Under any other circumstances, I would be happy to get back to school after such a long time. 

     Unfortunately, the pandemic isn’t quite over yet.

     With vaccines on the way, things are looking like they could get back to normal soon. But just from watching the news, you can see that it isn’t going to be as simple as that. It’s going to be a while before everyone gets vaccinated because of the high demand, but for some reason, we’re still pushing to go back now. Yes, there are masks and distancing precautions, but a quick visit to any public place that’s still open will show that not everyone follows these rules, even though they’re endangering everyone in the vicinity. I’m sure, if we went back, there would be people that probably don’t believe in the disease. 

     It’s simply not the right time to go back. Knowing that mask mandates are seen as more of a political issue than a health precaution and that there would almost certainly be people that break and bend those rules, I wouldn’t feel comfortable being in the building. There’s also the logistics of going back – with the distancing rules, there would only be a certain number of people allowed in the building, meaning that we would probably only be actually going to school one or two days a week. It seems like a waste to go back only one day a week if we’re still going to be mostly virtual anyway.

     This year, we’ve mostly settled into the virtual learning groove. It’s not great, and being online so long each day makes my brain hurt, but it’s better than possibly catching a disease. If my options are staying home like this, where it’s long laptop days but I’m safe, or going back, when some people are still debating the pandemic’s existence and don’t wear their masks over their nose, I’m staying home.