After spending a year and a half without any school events and studying online, students finally have the opportunity to go back to school in person. However, people have had many differing opinions about what was to be expected and how COVID-19 regulations would impact returning.

Many students looked forward to in-person school but still felt nervous about how they would have to get back into their old routine. It is safe to say that many people began their day waking up seconds before their first class started and not worrying about getting dressed. Students like Kayla McKechnie (12) agree claiming it would take time to get back into the rhythm: “I was excited to come back, but I was not happy to wake up early. I got into a relaxing routine last year, so I wasn’t sure if I could get used to in-person learning again.” After the first three weeks of school, her reaction was that “I feel like I’m finally getting used to it, but I still miss how much sleep I was able to get last year.”

Of course, in-person learning isn’t going to feel the same as it did two years ago. As most of us have been practicing social distancing and taking precautions, returning to passing by hundreds of people every day was inevitably going to feel different. According to Lauren First (11), “it was weird seeing a ton of people walking around campus and it sometimes feels too crowded even compared to my freshman year without COVID-19.”

This year, only the seniors have experienced a full year of high school. Both freshman and sophomores almost never stepped on campus and juniors have only spent half of their freshman year in person. Thus, most students have never seen the majority of the people they go to school with. Amber Han (12) adds “it was fun to see so many old and new faces on campus. Going back in person has allowed me to make new friends and meet a lot of people I didn’t even know I went to school with.”

In addition to learning in person, school events including dances and activities have been brought back. The first dance, the welcome back dance, was the first dance after returning to school. Anonymous (12) shares their opinion of the dance claiming “it was really fun but seemed unsafe since so many people were dancing close together without masks. Not everyone is vaccinated, so it was a little questionable and did make me a little uncomfortable.” While returning to in-person school and having activities again is exciting, some people have felt somewhat uncomfortable.

Regardless of people’s political stance or opinions on different activities, returning to in-person school has been enjoyable as we are starting to see signs of going back to our normal lives. We hope everyone has a great year and gets used to waking up early again.