The New York Times Magazine celebrates the little things in life through a weekly column called “Letter of Recommendation.” For the opinion writing assignment in Journalism 1, Mrs. Weiss asked the students to follow this style and write about something that they have come to appreciate more during the school closure and stay-at-home orders because of the Covid-19 outbreak. Enjoy! (Here is the link to the New York Times Magazine stories where these students got their inspiration.)

All kids have been able to do during this pandemic is pretty much sit at home doing their school work. Sitting at home, all day, everyday, for some people can be boring for a little while until they can find something that won’t make them bored anymore, and for others it is pretty boring no matter what. This has made me really appreciate being able to go to school.

Before the pandemic, I didn’t actually mind school. Some classes were boring, but there were fun people in them, and some classes, like fashion and fabrics or chorus class, were just altogether fun. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it. Kids these days in high school either love it, hate it, or they are just indifferent about school. If they realized how much time they spend nowadays trying to figure out what to do throughout their day more than ever before, then they could learn to appreciate going to school, as well.

The week after we stopped going to school was supposed to be my chorus concert. Other people were getting ready for sports, or already playing them, others were practicing for the musical, and getting ready for final competitions. Missing out on these kinds of things is quite sad, especially when some kids probably look forward to playing their sports or practicing for the musical, and now they don’t get to do that.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I think it’s kind of obvious that school isn’t just about the things you do during the actual school day, there are things done outside of it that can’t happen when school isn’t going on. I have appreciated school in this way because these things are what makes a school even better. Without them it would be everyone just going to classes and not anything else — like online learning for the last 10 weeks.

Since we have so much time throughout our day to do things, there are moments when we have to actually stop and think about what we want to do. In school, we had a schedule. At certain points throughout the day, they were fun. But at home, you actually have to think about what to do, and it is strange because we aren’t supposed to be at home right now, we’re supposed to be at school, with our schedules. So, being home is weird and not normal for us. When we go back to school, we can appreciate those fun times because during this pandemic, I miss those fun times throughout the day with friends, like talking about random things at lunch, or going to my friend’s locker with her and chatting before we head to class. 

Don’t we all miss going into that one classroom where even though you’re supposed to be doing work, eventually somehow the whole class gets off task, including the teacher, and you all just sit and talk about things? I, for one, miss going into Mr. Caughtery’s classroom and just hearing jokes and just everyone talking about random things and having fun.

So with all of these things in mind, I will personally take in the fact that even though some points of the day may be tough, like a test or a huge final or whatever it is, there are good things about school that have been missed. I will go there keeping in mind that there is more to school than just a classroom. We actually have fun in a place that isn’t usually seen as fun. Most students hate school, but they don’t realize that what gets them through the day is the fun things that go on throughout the day, so I will begin to understand and remember that for next year.