So, it turns out my parents were right .  

All throughout high school, I have been known to constantly complain about waking up early every single day just to go to the exact same place and do the same exact things.  If we are being honest, my attendance over the years clearly shows how much I disliked getting up.  I am the type of person who, when awake, has tons of energy, but getting up out of bed is the hard part.  I know I’m not the only one that opens their eyes and performs “the stare.” 

I grew tired of it.  Truthfully tired.  Three straight years of feeling like a robot.  Enough was enough.  

Homeschooling jumped into my thought process, and the more I thought about it, the more I was loving every detail involved.  The privilege of waking up on my schedule and attending class whenever I wanted seemed like a dream come true.  

The only con that I saw was the social problems I might develop by not being around people.  Considering that I have been in public schools for the past 11 years and would still be hanging out with all those friends and family outside of school, that didn’t seem like too much of a concern for me specifically though. Plus, I have a friend who is a product of homeschooling and he is just like me socially. 

My mind was made up. I would finish my senior year in the comfort of my home on the internet, but you know parents always have to ruin something.  I brought the idea to the table and they shut it down quicker than the government shut down the country because of the coronavirus (maybe that wasn’t a good comparison because we know the Orange Dean took forever on that one).  I felt extremely salty as they went on to tell me to stop complaining, giving me the whole “back in my day” talk.

I found myself right back at Norristown Area High School in September.  I wasn’t really mad about it because it is what it is, but I most certainly wasn’t happy either.  Had me feeling like Melania Trump every time she’s on TV next to her husband (maybe I need to stop picking on the Trumps).  

Then suddenly the coronavirus shut down schools and granted my wish of being homeschooled .  But with my early morning also went all of the great things about school I was taking for granted. What started as the loss of my senior baseball season then slowly became the loss of the rest of my senior year. Prom, graduation, and senior night all down the drain (I wish they could’ve at least taken all of the school work down there with them).

Although I didn’t want to be in school in the first place, I began to soak in why I genuinely loved being in high school.  Even with the occasionally dirty bathrooms and the groups of students that are loud for no reason in the hallways, the place hits home.

The more time I spent at home, the more I started to appreciate everything in the building that I would no longer see.  I miss engaging with all of my fellow students as well as my old and new teachers. The atmosphere in my school is one that isn’t felt anywhere else, which gives me a sense of pride and determination. 

Being a senior, the moments that I had this year are now my final memories in high school, which mean the most to me.  As kids, we always wanted our senior year to be like “High School Musical 3,” all smiles and all fun as we topped things off with a big graduation.  

Now that I look back, even the beginning of my senior year was actually extremely fun.  From night football games to big events like homecoming and senior banquet, my days of school sure were flying.  I even got a chance to get more involved and try different things such as writing for the school newspaper (which I truthfully didn’t even know existed),  I liked the rate at which things were going but now it all feels too fast.   

They say that time flies when you’re having fun, but I never wanted to believe it.  I swear it’s always the moments when you think things are going good that life wants to hit you hard for no reason at all.  This deadly virus really dropped a bomb on us. 

 I hate to admit it, but my parents one upped me on this one.  Sitting behind a screen everyday for class is nothing like being in actual class.  Finding the motivation to get out of bed when it feels like it isn’t mandatory is one of the hardest parts of this.  There isn’t a teacher in the room at all times making sure that you are on task completing the work so it feels like you’re on your own. Even the fact that I am not writing on paper bothers me in ways I couldn’t have expected.  

I never thought I would say this, but I miss school.  

As a senior I miss everything about high school and ending through a computer sucks brutally.  Even the memories from freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior year will be ones that stick with me for the rest of my life. 

This whole seeing everyone behind a screen just isn’t cutting it.  I can’t even get on people’s nerves or bother my teachers!  I don’t know what I was thinking in the summer, this will never be for me. At least I do have the memories of senior year before this all went down. Truly, thank God I never went through with homeschooling.