A drawing shows Sports Staffer Janie Ripps navigating the busy environment of Clarke Central High School. A few months into her freshman year, Ripps still finds the effects of COVID-19 present. Illustration by Antonio Starks
Sports Staffer Janie Ripps reflects on her first months of high school and academic experiences during a pandemic.
For as long as I can remember, school has been a safe and familiar place for me. It was a place where I could find answers to my questions and socialize with friends. But the start of the 2021-22 school year was different.
In March of 2020, when I was in seventh grade, the pandemic drove every student out of Clarke County School District schools. When my eighth-grade year approached, I wasn’t preparing to return to the typical classroom space as I had in previous years.
All I had to do was click on a link and stare at a small box in the corner that was now my teacher.
After my year of virtual learning, walking into Clarke Central High School for the first time was like walking into a crowded and loud UGA football game. I felt overwhelmed as well as lost and anxious.
This school setting was very different from what I was imagining. CCHS, which I had been anticipating ever since I was younger, as both of my older sisters had attended and thrived here, felt new and strange.
The things that were once ordinary at school are now new obstacles that I have to overcome.
Throughout these past few months being at CCHS, I have been working to find a new normal in this chaos that used to be everyday life before COVID. The things that were once ordinary at school are now new obstacles that I have to overcome.
A few months into the school year, I not only became familiar with my classes and the busy flow of CCHS, but I also found the significance of change.
I learned to adjust to the constant shifts of school as my high school experience continued, but virtual learning continues to rob many of a normal school experience.
Coming to CCHS helped me realize how this pandemic still continues to affect everyday life. The beginning of my high school experience continues to be a victim of COVID-19, and so was the world I once lived in.
