by Griffin Callaghan, Copy Editor, October 2020

Virtual DayIn School Day
8:25 – You wake up, roll out of bed, pull a sweatshirt on, and bring one of the pillows from your bed onto your desk chair. 8:30 – You sit in homeroom for 20 minutes even though there is no assembly. 
8:33 – Assembly begins. There must have been some tech issues until the last minute.
8:50 – Assembly is still going. You hope it will end soon to give you a few minutes to run to the bathroom.
8:58 – No. Such. Luck.
9:00 – Your first period teacher has yet to start the class, so you re-evaluate a possible opportunity to use the bathroom. As you waste your time questioning if you can make it, the meeting begins.
9:49 – First period going strong. You plead silently to your teacher to end class on time. 9:50 – First period ends so you go sit on an adirondack chair for the next hour, listen to music, and chat with a friend through your masks. 
9:55 – Once again. No. Such. Luck. 
10:00 – Now you are thirsty. All you can think about is how dry and gross your mouth is. Does it always taste like this? You desperately need to go brush your teeth. And you still haven’t gone to the bathroom. 
10:02 – You log onto your second class of the day and your teacher asks you why you were late. You have no explanation outside of the fact that you sat blankly staring into the screen for two minutes after clicking the calendar invitation and before clicking to enter zoom. 
10:50 – Your teacher crams what felt like two and a half lessons into one class period, but luckily lets you out on time. You know immediately after hanging up that you will retain 0% of what was taught. You do, however, have the privilege of using the bathroom and brushing your teeth. 
11:00 – You meet with your math teacher to try to attain some semblance of understanding. You are left feeling more confused than when you started. Your head starts to hurt. Maybe you should eat something. 11:00 – You head to lunch and eat not-enough mac and cheese.
11:40 – No time to EAT when there are classes to COMPLETE! 11:33 – You realize your lunch block ended three minutes ago so you hurry to throw away the nine pounds of food waste you generated from not being able to make your own plate. 
11:40 – Another class, outside in a tent. Somehow, you can hear the teacher in the other tent more clearly than your own teacher. You end up playing with the grass under your feet instead of listening.
12:30 – You are about to stand up to go grab a snack when a friend FaceTimes you. Ten minutes fly by, and you have to get into your next class. 12:30 – You have ten minutes to burn until your next class. You go into the library and stand too close to people. Someone comes over to gently remind you to spread out.
12:40 – At this point you don’t even know where you are, what your name is, or, more importantly, what class you are sitting in. You stare at the teachers mouth, mesmerized by the asynchronous audio and visual output that you are receiving. 12:40 – One more class. Your teacher is virtual, but you already had to use Zoom for each of your other classes, so your computer dies. You are given a virtual detention for “missing class,” even though you were sitting there. 
1:30 – You have a 30 minute break. As you walk downstairs to get lunch and an Advil, your dog decides it is a good time to throw up on the carpet. Not wanting to let the carpet stain, you must attend to the cleaning process. 1:30 – S Block. Burn another 20 minutes in the classroom. 
1:50 – The cleaning is done but now there isn’t enough time to make yourself a real meal. Instant Ramen it is. 
2:00 – Last class babyyyyy. Too bad your mom and two siblings all collectively decided that they wanted to download what seems to be the entire Harry Potter Movie Collection and three copies each of the New Testament, simultaneously, because your WiFi grinds to a halt. Every other word out of your teacher’s mouth is making it through your speakers. Any chance of participating in the class is gone. Each time you go to share, you get back disappointed looks from the teacher and clear indications from your peers that your sound is coming across very jumbled. 2:00 – You have a free last period so you once again return to an adirondack chair and zone out. 
2:51 – You cry. 3:30 – Wave #2 of the afternoon program begins, so you casually head down to the MAC for a socially distanced practice.