By: Allie Wallace
With the COVID-19 pandemic keeping the majority of people at home, students all across the country are faced with the choice to go back to school part time, stay online, or in some places, return full time. What once was an issue of choices being made for us is now a more nuanced predicament of many facets: mass emotional isolation, fluctuating academic performance, and a shift in social norms. What works for some, doesn’t for others. Is the atmosphere better at home? At school? Factors like convenience and fear of failure are some of the many things students and our families are facing now, let alone the myriad of non-school-related difficulties already affecting our daily lives. The no-longer-rhetorical question is whether parents and guardians truly understand the inner conflict their children face, having to make decisions that could—in their purest form—be the difference between loneliness and normalcy; sickness and health.