17 , junior at Mount Pleasant High School ( virtual , then in-person ), Providence
IT WAS A FRIDAY , I THINK . WE WERE all happy because we thought it was going to be , oh , a two-week vacation . But then it was two more weeks , and then more . We were confused . We didn ’ t know how it was going to go .
The school gave us Chromebooks and some kids didn ’ t know how Chromebooks work . I ’ m a fast learner , so it was easy to learn how to work with it . But it was kind of complicated because some of my teachers didn ’ t know how to put attendance online . So I had to email them every day : “ Okay , I ’ m here for class !” My parents are kind of strict about attendance . They live in Guatemala and have a coffee farm , and they never went to college or high school . I just want to make them proud .
In my house , we didn ’ t have Wi-Fi . My cousin and I figured it out , but then we forgot to pay . She ’ s in college right now , so she had to do all her classes online all the time , too . I live with my great aunt and my cousin . I was born in Philadelphia , but when I was eight , my parents moved back to Guatemala and I lived in Guatemala
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JENNIFER
for , like , five or four years . I came back to Las Vegas with my sister , but she got married and wanted to live on her own so I came to Providence .
At the beginning of the pandemic , I was not really taking it seriously . We thought we were going to come back and I was like , oh , when I get back I ’ ll get back to it , you know . TikTok was one of the things that distracted me a lot . I just like watching the videos and funny things .
I was uncomfortable being on camera all the time . Sometimes it was not required . Most people didn ’ t like to turn on the camera because they were just waking up . I also don ’ t have my own room . I just live in the living room . So it was kind of awkward for me because like , oh , people are seeing things in my room : “ I guess that ’ s a couch . Is that a TV there ?”
It was also lonely because my cousin is twenty-two years old , so she doesn ’ t hang out with me . My aunt , she only likes watching the news and she spends her time working . I felt a little depressed about it . After winter break , my cousin got sick with COVID-19 , and my uncle . They took it seriously so I had to be in my room all the time . That ’ s when I got really depressed because I was not socializing . Especially not having my parents around . I really miss them .
If someone asked me how much I learned at the beginning , I feel like I will say nothing really . I don ’ t remember much . Last summer , I did Upward Bound and I can say they were more professional with virtual learning . The camera thing was not optional . It was required to turn on our cameras . If not , you ’ re not present in class . And we had homework every day and every week we had quizzes , so we were actually doing our work . But so many kids that used to do the program the year before didn ’ t attend last summer . It is voluntary , but once I start something , I want to finish it through the four years of high school . It will look good on my college resume .
In April , when we came back for in-person , we actually started learning . But because I ’ m in ELL ( English Language Learners ), I have to come every day to the school . It ’ s kind of hard , though , coming every day because other students are on a rotating schedule , A and B . Today is A , and it is a B day tomorrow , and tomorrow I get the same lesson as today . If you ’ re at home , they put you on a different lesson , which is the homework for me . I feel like I ’ m getting extra work than everybody else .
Last summer , I took physics at Upward Bound and this school year I ’ m taking physics and I ’ m doing very well . But the AP physics test is a different story . Some questions were relatable — what I learned in class . But some questions were really hard . Because of the pandemic and the A and B schedule , we didn ’ t have much time to learn every topic from physics . So we only got to the point to learn only basic physics . And we couldn ’ t learn about electricity and volume and things like that . We were not prepared for the test .
But it ’ s gotten better because now I can socialize with my friends . My best friend , I told him I didn ’ t know if I was coming to lunch today . He was like , “ Nooo !” He ’ s the only friend I spend all day with every week . When he doesn ’ t come to school , I ’ ll be calling him : “ Where are you ? I ’ m not trying to be at school alone !” And we are very competitive with each other : who has more AP classes , who has more As . Right now , we are first and second in the junior class . My average right now is 96.43 and his is 96.8 . I ’ m like : “ Watch , I ’ m coming for you !”
46 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l SEPTEMBER 2021