It’s Good to be Back

By Serena, Age 11

Fourth grade. That’s when it all started. The teachers and parents said we would be out of school for two weeks, quarantined because of the new pandemic starting. But those two weeks quarantining soon turned into a month. That month turned into three months, and those three months turned into a year. Masks, fear, sickness, loss. Everything was upside down. Fifth grade eventually came around. For me, that meant a new school and still quarantining. Months of online school went by. But then, I saw the light at the end of the tunnel starting to show in March 2021 when in-person school started again. I was able to see my new friends, and I ran for the first time in more than a year. 

We had a fun culmination ceremony, and I got to do the welcoming lines in Korean! I started middle school strong and in person, even though we still had to wear masks. I got to experience a lot of new things with the pandemic, but I would rather never go through them again.