I’m so excited about online school! This is better than actually going to school and learning… Yeah, that’s most likely what everyone thought when we had to go into quarantine during March of 2020 due to Covid-19, but no one knew how this would affect our normal lifestyle and mental health. 

As young teens, working in class at home is enjoyable because cheating and talking to friends is easier. Unfortunately and not surprisingly, I was just that student who didn’t really pay attention in class and didn’t join Google meetings when told just because I wanted to talk with my friends and not work. There are many kids in school who are using Google and the internet to cheat on assignments and tests.

School from home made finishing assignments easier but learning harder. It’s obvious that while we’re home, we use our phones and that just leads to cheating and searching for answers from our classwork. It’s especially difficult to focus when so much is going around in my household. Siblings are yelling in the living room, parents are doing work from home, and notifications of text messages are coming in from friends. Learning with those circumstances is next to impossible and during classes, I would always call friends and not listen. 

As an 8th grader in the 21st century, technology has made the most negative impact on me as I would spend hours on end looking through social media, such as Instagram or TikTok, during and after school. This led me to procrastinate on all my homework until the last minute. If an assignment was due at 11:59 pm, I would turn it in at 11:30 pm. My procrastination was that bad, but I never tried to stop myself from allowing that to happen. Ever since 6th grade, my procrastination has been growing worse and worse and quarantine was not helping at all. Procrastination not only negatively affected my work habits, but also affected my time management and hobbies outside of school. 

Hobbies are activities that people do for fun, but for me, all my hobbies grew boring even though they only benefited me. I used to read a lot of books before 8th grade started. The reason why I stopped reading was not because of 8th grade, but it was mostly because of quarantine. I lost motivation to study and read after school and just went on my phone, watched Youtube, and more. This occurred literally every day and I would just keep receiving notifications that my screen time was increasing. Yet I just ignored it every time. I also take private lessons for violin and it just started becoming annoying and boring to do and it was getting in the way of my schoolwork. I would beg and beg my mom to allow me to quit violin because I just felt like it was becoming a waste of money for both of us. She never allowed it although we both knew I never practiced since I always slept late due to procrastination. 

Virtual school messed up my sleep schedule. Along with almost everyone that I knew. Students would sleep late because they could sleep a bit later in the morning. When quarantine first started I for one would procrastinate until night and work on homework early dawn and sleep late as well. That made an impact on my schedule because I would sleep like that every single day. That continued on and my sleep schedule is still wack right now. It’s harder to sleep early, now that my body has adjusted to sleeping late at night. 

Experiencing quarantine was terrible. Although I can’t lie that quarantine was also enjoyable for a while as I would be able to stay home all the time and not have to interact with my classmates in school, I still lost the energy to stay active and motivated. This affected my lifestyle and is most definitely not helping me become more open with others since I was and still am, a shy introvert. There are many things or aspects of life to be proud of or happy with when an event occurs; however, quarantine was far from that.

No one knows when this virus will stop infecting more people but despite that, I just wish I could’ve prevented myself from growing into bad habits so easily. I can’t always blame virtual school and quarantine since it is my fault for allowing myself to fall out of a healthy routine. I’m not someone who plans their schoolwork and outside activities but I usually just leave my work until the last minute if I have a lot of time on that day. However, there is still so much room for change. If you’re struggling to focus while doing homework, go to a library or a cafe and work there. This might not seem like it would help but once you write down your plan of what work you will do first and last or even go out somewhere to work, this will definitely improve your working habits. You could even try to work with a friend because, in the end, all of these tips helped me and will also help you, to try and at least finish work without distraction.