By John Hesse
COVID-19 has been one of the deadliest, most widespread viruses in the 21st century that took the world by storm in early 2020, and we have felt its effects ever since. So far, there have been over 171 million total cases and 3.6 million reported deaths worldwide. Although those figures are large, COVID-19’s impact on the world is much larger.
I was attending Catalina Foothills High School for 9th grade when COVID-19 began mass spreading in February of 2020. At the time, I was doing pre-production construction and general soundboard work for the Catalina Foothills High School theater production of “Disaster!”. The week after all the showings had been finished was when we were informed that we would be continuing the rest of the school year online due to the influx of COVID-19 cases in the United States.
As for many, the transition was difficult at the beginning. My grades hovered around the same level, but it was a noticeably more difficult experience learning solely on Zoom. As reported by Tucson Weekly reporter, Danyelle Khmara, in the article “Thousands of Tucson students failing at 'alarming rate' during COVID-19”, there was a 38% spike in the number of failing grades of highschoolers in the Tucson Unified School District’s first 2020-2021 school semester. Over time, people have become more adjusted to online schooling, yet a large portion of the student body still desire to go back to in-person school.
The early online education at Catalina Foothills High School was relatively unorganized due to the short notice that the teachers and school board was given, but it worked out in the end. The school board decided to not have any finals for the 2019-2020 school year and I began slipping into the mindset that this quarantine was a break, which would prove to be a very harmful mindset in the future.
For the first few months, the quarantine may have actually improved my mental health as it gave me more time to do activities, bond with my family, and more time for self-reflection. I also noticed that I began becoming more attached to my screens, partially out of necessity but also because of the boredom caused by the long term quarantine. This began hurting my sleep schedule, my memory, and physical fitness. I began caring about my health less and started caring about my entertainment more. I remember constantly thinking to myself, “I’ll just take a break for now and I’ll start working out again when the quarantine is over”, unaware of just how long the quarantine would end up lasting.
By the start of the 2020-2021 school year, I had been accepted into University High School. Something I began appreciating early on was the increased productivity and organization that online education allows for, but increased productivity came with its own problems. Now that going to school was as easy as clicking the join button on Zoom, it was a lot easier to get into a productivity focused lifestyle. I did see positive results from my improved productivity, but it soon caused burnout and mental health issues.
Burnout is a common side effect of overworking oneself. For the first few months of the 2020 school year, I got relatively good grades and I attempted to maintain my grades at the same level, but the work became overwhelming. By midyear, I was burnt out. For a couple of weeks, I began slacking and missing assignments. Even though I had enough time to do the assignments, I just had very little motivation at the time. I started becoming more involved in video games to procrastinate, even though I knew the repercussions of it.
It was a single text that brought back my motivation. “Fix this”, my dad sent after seeing my grades plummet. I knew I needed to change a lot in order to turn around my grades and I realized that I didn’t want to waste this school year. I put aside social media, video games, and entertainment, and began putting thousands of hours into school work. It took its toll on my health and this method of improving grades is not recommended as a long term solution.
People often believe that the more hours you put into school work, the better the results will be. This is true to an extent; however, it can quickly become a problem if your whole life begins revolving around school work. Similarly to how social media is addictive through its validation of people through likes, I had become addicted to school work. I believed that every good grade validated my effort and the cost it was having on my health. My efforts ended up paying off and my grades excelled above what I had ever gotten, but I will not continue this type of mindset in the next school year.
2020 was not only a significant year due to COVID-19, but also because of the controversial sitting president at the time, Donald J. Trump. Once every week, if not more, Donald Trump would ignite a controversy around what he said, his policies, his actions, and his frequent falsities. Notable controversies include his inaction against white supremacists and other harmful conspiracy theories, promoting disinfectant injections as a cure for COVID-19, his general politicizing of COVID-19, pushing through the appointing of Amy Coney Barrett weeks after Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing, his influence and inaction on the infamous January 6th Capitol Insurrection, and much more.
Donald Trump is the reason why I got involved in politics and journalism. Although I don’t identify with a singular political party, I realized that not becoming involved would do more harm. I began following stories as they were happening, started learning more about politics, and discussed more political topics with my family. If Donald Trump had never been president, I would not have gotten as involved as I had. However, all things come at a cost. Along with many unrelated negative stories, such as the many forest fires and deaths of many figures and loved ones, the frequency of political controversies began creating a sense of news numbness for me. This news numbness persisted for more than half a year, but as controversial and negative stories begin to subside in mid-2021, this sense of numbness has improved.
COVID-19 cases and deaths are falling but we must remain persistent. This quarantine has been a wake up call for me and I believe it has changed me for the better.
I was attending Catalina Foothills High School for 9th grade when COVID-19 began mass spreading in February of 2020. At the time, I was doing pre-production construction and general soundboard work for the Catalina Foothills High School theater production of “Disaster!”. The week after all the showings had been finished was when we were informed that we would be continuing the rest of the school year online due to the influx of COVID-19 cases in the United States.
As for many, the transition was difficult at the beginning. My grades hovered around the same level, but it was a noticeably more difficult experience learning solely on Zoom. As reported by Tucson Weekly reporter, Danyelle Khmara, in the article “Thousands of Tucson students failing at 'alarming rate' during COVID-19”, there was a 38% spike in the number of failing grades of highschoolers in the Tucson Unified School District’s first 2020-2021 school semester. Over time, people have become more adjusted to online schooling, yet a large portion of the student body still desire to go back to in-person school.
The early online education at Catalina Foothills High School was relatively unorganized due to the short notice that the teachers and school board was given, but it worked out in the end. The school board decided to not have any finals for the 2019-2020 school year and I began slipping into the mindset that this quarantine was a break, which would prove to be a very harmful mindset in the future.
For the first few months, the quarantine may have actually improved my mental health as it gave me more time to do activities, bond with my family, and more time for self-reflection. I also noticed that I began becoming more attached to my screens, partially out of necessity but also because of the boredom caused by the long term quarantine. This began hurting my sleep schedule, my memory, and physical fitness. I began caring about my health less and started caring about my entertainment more. I remember constantly thinking to myself, “I’ll just take a break for now and I’ll start working out again when the quarantine is over”, unaware of just how long the quarantine would end up lasting.
By the start of the 2020-2021 school year, I had been accepted into University High School. Something I began appreciating early on was the increased productivity and organization that online education allows for, but increased productivity came with its own problems. Now that going to school was as easy as clicking the join button on Zoom, it was a lot easier to get into a productivity focused lifestyle. I did see positive results from my improved productivity, but it soon caused burnout and mental health issues.
Burnout is a common side effect of overworking oneself. For the first few months of the 2020 school year, I got relatively good grades and I attempted to maintain my grades at the same level, but the work became overwhelming. By midyear, I was burnt out. For a couple of weeks, I began slacking and missing assignments. Even though I had enough time to do the assignments, I just had very little motivation at the time. I started becoming more involved in video games to procrastinate, even though I knew the repercussions of it.
It was a single text that brought back my motivation. “Fix this”, my dad sent after seeing my grades plummet. I knew I needed to change a lot in order to turn around my grades and I realized that I didn’t want to waste this school year. I put aside social media, video games, and entertainment, and began putting thousands of hours into school work. It took its toll on my health and this method of improving grades is not recommended as a long term solution.
People often believe that the more hours you put into school work, the better the results will be. This is true to an extent; however, it can quickly become a problem if your whole life begins revolving around school work. Similarly to how social media is addictive through its validation of people through likes, I had become addicted to school work. I believed that every good grade validated my effort and the cost it was having on my health. My efforts ended up paying off and my grades excelled above what I had ever gotten, but I will not continue this type of mindset in the next school year.
2020 was not only a significant year due to COVID-19, but also because of the controversial sitting president at the time, Donald J. Trump. Once every week, if not more, Donald Trump would ignite a controversy around what he said, his policies, his actions, and his frequent falsities. Notable controversies include his inaction against white supremacists and other harmful conspiracy theories, promoting disinfectant injections as a cure for COVID-19, his general politicizing of COVID-19, pushing through the appointing of Amy Coney Barrett weeks after Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing, his influence and inaction on the infamous January 6th Capitol Insurrection, and much more.
Donald Trump is the reason why I got involved in politics and journalism. Although I don’t identify with a singular political party, I realized that not becoming involved would do more harm. I began following stories as they were happening, started learning more about politics, and discussed more political topics with my family. If Donald Trump had never been president, I would not have gotten as involved as I had. However, all things come at a cost. Along with many unrelated negative stories, such as the many forest fires and deaths of many figures and loved ones, the frequency of political controversies began creating a sense of news numbness for me. This news numbness persisted for more than half a year, but as controversial and negative stories begin to subside in mid-2021, this sense of numbness has improved.
COVID-19 cases and deaths are falling but we must remain persistent. This quarantine has been a wake up call for me and I believe it has changed me for the better.