As quarantine stretches on, students are beginning to look back on the school year and reflect on online schooling and life now. For some students, isolation has brought on thankful feelings about school and friends, changes with work and a new outlook on life.

Senior Natalia Peck, who works at Austin Aquarium has been deemed an essential worker and is now dealing with the changes at work.

“My job has become much more relaxed,” Peck said. “I’m happy that I can wear whatever I want to work now, since uniforms are no longer a necessity, I can even wear my sweatpants without consequences. We can focus on more projects that we did not have time for before and we are rebuilding old enclosures. Since it’s summer we can finally take a lot more animals outside to enjoy the sunlight which is very good for all of them.”

According to Peck, quarantine has not been too bad as her and her family get along and she is able to escape to work and do what she loves. However, for Peck online school is a different story.

“Online school was weird at first,” Peck said. “It is strange not being able to ask your teachers straight away if I have any questions. While I have gotten accustomed to it, it has its ups and downs. If I have no internet, then what happens.”

One of many students also struggling with changes due to quarantine is junior John Courtright. He said that one of the most disappointing things about online schooling is that the spring musical got cancelled. Because of this, Courtright  has been struggling with the reality of it all.

“It was going to be a really good experience for college applications and our yearly awards for GAHSMTA [Greater Austin High School Musical Theatre Awards], was also cancelled,” Courtright said. “But, we are able to do some online things like tap lessons for next year’s musical and we are even moving GAHSMTA to a virtual format and we are all going to get together through Zoom and watch it as a group.”

According to Courtright, he has been learning to deal with online school while also keeping himself busy and entertained to avoid boredom during isolation.

“I have been making sure to keep in constant contact with my friends, we have done things like movie night using Netflix Party,” Courtright said. “Finding motivation to do my work has been really hard. It is nice to do things at my own pace, but I find myself putting off things until the last second.”

While online schooling has taken some adjusting to get used to, Courtright said  that he has learned a few things from quarantine.

“I have learned that we kind of have trouble taking these situations seriously,” Courtright said. “From people taking trips during shelter in place to Corona content on Tik Tok, not many of us are taking this dangerous situation seriously. But I have also grown to appreciate the social environment of school a lot more. While teachers have done a good job of maintaining the academic flow of school online, the social interaction that school provides is something I have been missing a lot.”

Katie Smith, a sophomore involved in theater said that she has also been doing well during quarantine, as her and her family have decided to keep from being bored by watching movies and shows together. But by herself, Smith has decided to focus her free time into music.

“I have been working on a lot of music, both original and covers,” Smith said. “I have been creating this music because not only is it a good way to take up free time, but it is also an amazing outlet that allows me to take any stress or concerns that I have about current events and write them into lyrics. Besides that, I have been prepping for my audition for next year’s musical, ‘Something Rotten.’”

According to Smith, who is also in broadcast, she has been working to still put out shows once a week for the Wolfcast to keep things going during quarantine.

“We meet every Monday morning over Zoom to decide who will be in charge of what for that week, whether it be editing, the main package, segments, or anything else,” Smith said. “We then meet on Wednesday mornings to check up on everyone’s progress and help people if needed. We submit every Thursday night and the show airs Friday. We have also been utilizing Instagram stories in order to produce extra content that cannot be put into our main show. It has definitely been more challenging to create news based on content because we can’t physically go out and interview people, but we have been finding solutions and problem solving along the way.” 

Smith said that quarantine has made her look at life and school through a different lense while online schooling and isolating.

“I definitely miss going to school a lot,” Smith said. “I miss having a defined schedule and I miss getting to see my friends and peers every second of every day. One of the main things I have learned from quarantine is to not take anyone or anything for granted, because you will never know what could happen next. We all went from seeing our friends every day to not seeing them at all. But quarantine has absolutely given me a deeper appreciation for school and friends.”