I can still remember the moment I found out we were going into lockdown. I was at a hockey match in Sligo, one of the girls looked at her phone and said all schools are closed for two weeks. I was thrilled, two extra weeks off school! Other than the fact the Patrick’s Day disco was cancelled I was very happy with the unexpected break. Little did I know those days would turn into months and that almost a year later we’d be back in lockdown again.
The first lockdown was a complete novelty. I was in third year so was very busy, had barely any spare time, and was looking forward to a change of pace. After our extended Easter holidays we were informed we would be going back to school, except — plot twist — from our bedrooms. When we began online classes we were firmly under the impression that we would still have a Junior Cert. I felt bad for the poor teachers, everyone always had ‘broken mics’ which meant often the classes were a one man show.
Doing online school is very hard in my opinion, there is so much else going on in real life to grab one's attention that the chance they are giving their undivided concentration to a screen that’s playing an hour long lecture on the formation of rocks is rather unlikely. The fact that you can't have a chat or see anyone makes all the classes extremely dull and repetitive. Our online school continued and it was more stressful than for non exam years as we still had our Junior Cert always looming. The day we found out it was cancelled was unbelievable. For three years, it was our entire secondary school life. This is what we were preparing for. And then, faster than we jump out of class when the bell rings, it was cancelled. There were mixed opinions on whether this was the right thing to do. I fully believe it was. I don’t think it would be fair to have to sit an exam after all the disruption our year suffered. Online school was quickly a distant memory as we got into summer, everything was looking like it was on the way up and corona was on the way out.
We went back to school, wearing masks and social distancing. But nonetheless we were back. Then Christmas came and boom, schools were shut again. I've only had one day of online school so far, but I think it's much harder than the first time round. The novelty has fully worn off and we are in TY now, so we are missing out on a lot of experiences that can't be moved online. However, I think overall online learning has been an incredibly interesting experience, I think it makes you appreciate the simple parts of school that I used to take for granted. Corona changed everyone’s lives and forced everyone to adapt and adjust to a new normal. I hope soon this whole experience will be history. I will, no doubt, when life is going too fast, wish I could go back into lockdown, back to the days full of Netflix, Chloe Ting, online shopping, house renovating, couch surfing, endless FaceTiming. I’m very lucky I’m aware my lockdown experience was much better than a lot of other people's . I hope everyone stays safe and positive as we are now [finally] approaching the end of what seemed like a never-ending real-life edition of Groundhog Day.
Ellie Concannon is a transition year student at Coláiste Iognáid.
