Directions: Think back to last March, when you were in 7th grade and the lockdown began. Then came the summer and the fall, when you began 8th grade online. Since that time, reflect on how you feel, what you’ve learned, and what you are looking forward to in the future. Then, write a 1-2 page reflection on those things. Use these questions to guide your writing: - How did you feel when the lockdown began? - How did you feel starting 8th grade virtually? What were your hopes for the year? - What did you learn over the course of virtual school in 8th grade? - What feelings have you had over the course of the school year? - What have been some highs and lows of being in school virtually and of the pandemic? - What are some things you have learned about yourself this past year?

I had to do this project and its probably different from your experience but ill put my essay.

Explanation:

In 2019, if somebody told me that next year the world would be shut down and nobody could get within six feet of each other, I would have brought that person to a mental facility. The coronavirus is the most unimaginable, crazy period of time I (and probably the rest of the world) have ever lived through.

I’ve missed out on many things such as vacations, events, birthday parties, and fun activities. Towards the end of the sixth grade, there were all these fun activities and field trips planned since we were graduating elementary school. Only a week before all those activities were to start, the schools shut down and all we got was a driveby graduation at our school which I did actually enjoy but let's face it, that little event did not make up for the loads of things our grade was so very excited to do. My family was also supposed to go to Martha’s Vineyard with my aunt, cousin, and her fiance which we had started doing every summer, but we had to cancel it. The summer was nice though, as I went downtown a lot with my friends, went on my boat a lot, practiced sports, and swam in my  pool. I think we can all agree that the summer probably would have been better without a global pandemic to worry about.

Although it’s been hard, the coronavirus has had some upsides to it. I’ve been recently focusing on improving myself/health and if the pandemic hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have as much time daily and throughout the year to make these improvements for myself. For example, I’ve been going to the local CrossFit gym every day after school and I even participated in a nutrition challenge and won! It built up my self confidence a lot and I'm as fit and as healthy as I've ever been thanks to the extra time I've had to better myself. A lot of people have been saying things about the coronavirus making them have depression, anxiety, and social anxiety and I suppose I gained a bit of that (who hasn’t?) but it’s been really nice to get to focus on myself for a whole year and try new things I've always wanted to do but haven’t had time for. The pandemic has changed me, in some ways for the better because I take things less for granted now and really care about my health, state of mind, and wellbeing much more.