We started to go into “quarantine” while I was halfway through 8th grade. We were supposed to come back to school about 2 weeks later but I ended up staying at home doing school for the next year and a half. Throughout my freshman year of highschool I was happy that I didn’t need to leave the sanctity of my room. I thought to myself, this is going to be easy. Honestly, I liked staying home and not doing anything what-so-ever. All I did really was play PC games and talk to friends. That’s what messed me up. I wasn’t really ready for a full year of highschool to actually affect me the way it did. Back then I slacked off to my heart's content. I just did whatever and whenever. So far it's been about a month since writing this and I feel pretty confident about what I can do. “Pretty”, being the key word. So far I have been able to keep a good average with my grades. I feel like I can do more if I try, but I have to put in the effort. Honestly, I personally feel happy to be back. Some people say how it’s “too much” for them or how “they will never be able to get back into it”. It’s pretty easy. I like being back, sitting in a classroom and taking notes in my notebook. The environment has changed, yes, but it's not too different from what I was either told or remembered from the short time we could actually go into school. School is only different because of masks, besides from that it's pretty normal. It’s not as bad as people make it out to be. People say how it's such a huge change and how it's weird to be at school now. I think that this is better than the virtual experience that we went through last year. Being back is an opportunity for many to redeem themselves from the past year. Many people failed that year because of the many distractions being home caused. Some distractions intentional, some not. These “distractions” are no longer a threat to anyone at the moment because we are back going to school, at a slight disability. So far, this fresh new environment created from the pandemic has been good, for now.