Covid 19 started to blow up in early March of 2020, the world went on a total lockdown. Owners closed all restaurants, amusement parks, administrations closed schools, and anything non-essential to life.  Everyone went through their own struggles as well as experienced their own highlights. The world stopped for a second and we all really got time to think about everything that was going on in our lives.  Today, the world still isn’t completely “normal”, but restaurants have reopened as well as schools and many more places.  It’s also exciting to know there has been a recent vaccine developed.  We still have so much more to figure out but I think we can all agree that in 2020-2021 we have learned a lot of life lessons that may have changed other lives.  Some made a bigger impact and some made a smaller one. This year gave us unexpected turns and we all learned different lessons that made an impact on us, and some even changed the world. 

In life we go through many ups and downs, we experience great experiences and we also experience the not-so-great ones. Through 2020-2021 there were both positives and negatives of the year.  We all had our eyes opened by what was happening in the world.  After going through so many changes in our lives it’s important to reflect back on what happened that year and see how much you’ve grown from that.  Self-reflection is important especially nowadays with the world around us constantly changing and different obstacles being thrown at our faces on a daily in the world of Covid 19. 

There are so many different lessons you could have learned from these past years, but it ultimately comes down to factors like your age, job, home situation, etc.. not one person’s experience will be the same because we all have different and unique situations that we deal with.  For example, teachers dealt with a lot of changes throughout this year.  Most of them had to navigate the new technology being used for remote students, and learn how to teach remotely with students. 

 Jenna Farra, an Imagine Prep teacher, is currently teaching freshman Math. Teaching online had its ups and downs, Farra shared her experience with teaching during such a challenging time.

“The struggle was finding ways to re-engage everybody and keep everybody engaged, which was not always successful but having to find or even adjust your thinking on how things should be especially in person and then remote and then finding ways to make adjustments for those two different environments. Like picking up new apps or you know just learning the new technology,” Farra said.

Technology was also something really new to us like the extension we use now, Schoology. for both students and teachers. There was so much to be proud of this year.  Adults and kids made it through one of the rougher years to experience, we all went through a global pandemic this year.

“I am mostly proud of the students for hanging in there like that’s not even on us like it was hard on the students and seeing some of those students succeed with all of the changes I think was the best,”  Farra said.

It’s safe to say that many of the students that went through changes and worked their hardest to succeed.

It wasn’t only difficult for teachers but also for administration and students.  The Imagine Prep team had to work together to find solutions as to what to do about the global pandemic and still handle school at the same time.  Students had to adjust to something completely new.  No one knew how the year was going to go but as a fellow student, I can tell you that I learned a lot from this year and I’m sure many other kids did too.  We weren’t just affected in school but also in our personal lives.  Jayda Pineda is an Imagine Prep student who was asked about the biggest lesson she learned in the years 2020-2021. 

“I think one lesson I learned in this past school year is to never take anything for granted.  If I learned anything or have to take away anything from quarantine it is that even the little things in life are a privilege,” Pineda expressed.

 It was insightful to hear because it was such a year to take away so much from it, you really realized that even getting out of your house and seeing your friends was a privilege or even going to a grocery store to feel “normal” as Pineda said was a privilege. 

At the end of it, we all went through this pandemic together and we have all become stronger from it.  Families learned to not take life for granted or each other and even kids learned that learning a concept is harder than it seems and teachers are most definitely needed to build that connection to help our learning.   Teachers, Administrations, family members, and students described the 2020-2021 year as resilience, perseverance, difficult, and challenging.  It was one rollercoaster year.