Do you feel like your social skills completely vanished during quarantine? Are you feeling significantly lonelier? Well, that actually makes total sense because we were so secluded during quarantine. But one thing that I’m pretty sure that all of us worried about was how to deal with going to school yet again–after an entire 6 months! Whether you’re staying home or going to school, there are plenty of pros and cons for both. 

  For hybrid schooling, you get more one-on-one time with the teacher which ultimately 

leads to better grades and an enhanced education. If you ever need help with something, teachers always seem to be open about bringing out the breakout rooms to have a conversation with just you. This gives you an opportunity to speak freely and ask a lot of questions. If you want to survive the 2020 version of school, you need to be an expert on writing emails, and that gives you an additional way to privately communicate with the teacher. You also get to see your friends in person and have an actual “going to school” experience. If you stay at home, you don’t get to feel the actuality of school. Sure you still go to online classes and everything but you never get the practicality of physically going to school or being in the same room as the teacher and your classmates. But on the other hand, for remote schooling, you get the chance to stay in the comfort of your own home all day long and eat whenever and whatever you want! Why say no to food when it’s there? On top of that, there’s also a sense of restfulness because you don’t have to be that self-conscious about yourself due to that lovely camera button that we have all developed a love-hate relationship with.      

As a bonus for all of us, we can wake up a bit later and not have to get ready for school first thing in the morning. We also have a little more freedom because we don’t have as many rules to follow, although we do have a lot more responsibilities on us. It’s also significantly harder to keep track of the work we have to do. Remote students don’t really have folders or binders so it’s kind of hard to stay organized. Keeping those negatives aside, you do get to learn things at your own pace and you get a longer break along with the afternoon off every other day! This gives everyone more time to do homework and study but also just sit down and relax. Or stand! 

Due to this hybrid and remote learning plan, you probably can’t see your friends as much as you normally would. Some of your friends could be fully remote or only half remote and they might further have been split into North or South groups. Even though Shaker is making clubs and sports more open for everyone to be able to participate in, people still don’t get all the opportunities they would receive if we were all in school. For the remote kids, you can’t see your teachers in person which makes it harder to get help from them. Making it even worse, you don’t get as much attention from the teacher if you are a remote student zooming into a hybrid class. Sometimes the teacher might walk away from their computer and the remote students can’t hear anything. Or they would write something down on the board and the students can’t see anything due to the camera positioning. This makes it a lot harder to develop an academic relationship with your teacher. On the bright side though, hopefully by the end of this, you improve on your online communicating skills!

All of these can lead to immense feelings of desolation. There is a difference between solitude and loneliness though. Solitude is time spent alone on purpose and is actually shown to be helpful in the long run. Loneliness however, is a state of mind in which you’re vulnerable, and feelings like emptiness or undesirableness thrive. But, lucky for you, we’ve conjured up a list of ways to combat this depressing feeling:

1. Start building a sweat by exercising or running   
2. It’s completely okay to be missing people and wanting to be there with them in person. But try to deal with doing things virtually for now, or until this entire situation turns a bit more normal. You could try to play online games with your friends like the currently popular Among Us! 
3. Try to practice more self-love. You know, a little journaling here and there? Or a little deep breathing to release some stress?
4. Do a bit of volunteering and get those hours! You can volunteer in person (just make sure to practice proper precautions) or even online!
5. Start paying attention to the things that matter instead of things that don’t. Like you know, studying for that test that you have soon instead of catching up with the newest celebrity gossip? Doing this will automatically fill up your schedule with productive things to do, ceasing that loneliness. 
6. Don’t compare yourself to other people. I know it can be really easy to start comparing yourself to everyone on social media or even in person, but they’re dealing with their own things just like you are. Who knows, they could be envying you at this very moment? 

That’s it for our list. Hope you found this helpful or even relatable at some point! In conclusion, there are so many pros and cons for both remote and hybrid schooling. But in the end, we should deal with what we have and make this into an opportunity to further know ourselves. Thank you so much for spending your time reading this article! 

References

“Loneliness.” Psychology Today, 2020, www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/loneliness#:~:text=Loneliness%20is%20the%20state%20of,a%20deep%20and%20pervasive%20loneliness. Accessed 18 Oct. 2020.

“Managing Loneliness and Anxiety During Quarantine.” Harvard Business Review, 28 Aug. 2020, hbr.org/2020/08/managing-loneliness-and-anxiety-during-quarantine. Accessed 18 Oct. 2020.

“Feeling Lonely? Discover 18 Ways to Overcome Loneliness.” Psychology Today, 2019, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/click-here-happiness/201902/feeling-lonely-discover-18-ways-overcome-loneliness. Accessed 18 Oct. 2020.