Back-to-school in the middle of October

    On Monday, October 19th, I returned to Pendleton County High School as a senior. I was so excited to receive in-person instruction and see some of my friends for the first time since March. However, I tried to keep my expectations reasonable. I knew it would not be the typical high school experience with which I was familiar.
    I have a college course during first period, so I walked in the building about 8:50. A woman pointed a thermometer at my head. As I passed through the door, my teacher squirted hand sanitizer into my outstretched palms. I looked around and saw my class had three students in it, counting myself. The small number shocked me. While I received a lot of personal attention when I had an issue with the work, I missed the sound of a full classroom. To contrast, my English class had every available socially- distanced desk filled. This is a college class, so most of our work is being done on our laptops while we are supervised by our teacher. It felt almost dystopian to see all of us typing diligently on our laptops with our masks on. In 4th period, AP Biology, only one other student was in the room. This made our lab work a pretty personal experience. We were both very invested in our roles and because of that, we worked really well together. At lunch, we have assigned seats next to other people from our 4th period so that contact tracing is easier for the school. I missed eating with my friends, but I made the most of it and chose to talk as much as I could with the student beside me.
    Overall, I am grateful we are returning to school. Even though things are not back to normal, and they won’t be until we get this virus under control, I am learning to adapt.