Last year, I thought we were done with it all. Lockdowns, masks, social distancing… I thought year 11 and 2021 would be completely different. I think most people did, to be honest.
But now we’re here in lockdown 6.0. COVID had other plans for us, I guess.
I remember feeling really bad for VCE students last year. They were missing out on making good memories and enjoying their last years of school.
I’m now a VCE student in lockdown. Here are some of my reflections:
Friends
1. it’s hard not seeing my friends. So many 18ths have been canceled and so many plans put on hold. I miss the simple things like getting food from the tuck shop and sitting all together at lunch. Having said that, I love making gourmet meals with all the extra time I have. We’ve also had zooms with friends where things feel somewhat normal.
Studying
2. VCE-wise, things have been challenging. I never really appreciated being in class with my teacher until I had to do school via Microsoft Teams. A big part of my subjects (legal and religion) is interacting with my teacher. Sometimes things can be lost in translation over teams, or someone’s tech issues with mean the whole class is waylaid. It can also get hard to concentrate as there are so many ready distractions. The one good thing that I’ve found is that I have loads of extra time to do homework and get ready for exams. Sounds nerdy but it is a benefit of lockdown.
Health
3. I’m also grateful that my loved ones are all safe and healthy. While lockdown definitely has its drawbacks, I try to remember that there are so many people that have it worse. I’m relatively unaffected by COVID despite by complaints.
Exams
4. There’s a chance that loads of kids won’t be able to sit their exams because they will have attended an exposure site right before. In that case, their GAT (general achievement test) results will be relied on for their ATAR, as well as SAC marks and teacher feedback. It would be pretty awful to put in so much work, especially while in lockdown, only to be in iso when you’re supposed to be seeing that work come to fruition.
