With the five year anniversary of the COVID-19 shutdown in March of 2020, Journalism students in Mr. Zamora’s second period class reflected on their time in school in 2020 when schools went on Spring Break and did not return.
Senior Vanessa Hernandez: “Back when COVID happened in 2020 I definitely did not think it would lead to how it led. I thought it would be just an extra week if anything knowing how our district is about days off. But once reality hit and I was missing so much I was honestly glad at the time for it because I would be at home. I mean who wouldn’t want to be at home at all times. As a middle schooler I definitely missed seeing all my friends everyday but I loved it. Until I came back to school and realized how much that affected me. It affected me educationally, mentally, and physically. Since during quarantine we were doing online it was very easy to slack off and not do the work or just cheat and copy off. I still think that’s the case now since we changed to digital ever since I feel like if we would have stayed on paper students would learn better. At Least for me I feel like I would take information better that way and would push me to learn better physically doing it than just copying and pasting it. It affected me mentally because I then lacked social interaction and had severe anxiety with people. I would panic just being at the grocery store. I could be there for like an 1hr max. Then physically for others this pushed them to be active and work on their body since they had the time for me it just got worse and gained a lot of weight. I sadly did get COVID twice but that was way later in like 2023-2024. It is weird thinking back to the years they stole from us and the memories. I feel like I hardly remember that era but I am weirdly glad it was over.”
Senior Cora Alvarado: “I remember getting off for spring break that Friday and everyone talking about how we might shut down by how fast COVID was spreading. At first, I was kind of excited because I thought that the idea of not having school for who knows how long was cool. However, deep down I also wanted to go to El Paso to go see my dad. For almost every holiday and break we have we go visit him. I remember that day when I got out of school, he was telling me how he hopes we don’t get shut down because he was planning on taking us to LA to go see the Dodgers play in the summer. I remember telling him not to say that and saying that I hope it doesn’t happen. I don’t remember how I found out we were getting shut down but I remember spending most of my time just watching Arrow, a show on Netflix almost every day. I really didn’t have anything to do all day and was pretty much stuck at home. Whenever we had to go out it was mainly my parents who would go get us groceries or food. They would send us to our rooms to disinfect everything and make sure they were able to wipe down everything just in case. When starting school again online, I thought it was the weirdest thing ever, how just a small little screen with my teacher and classmates was our new reality. The plus side of it that I liked was when I would finish my assignments, some of my teachers would let us log off and I would just use that opportunity to sleep or use my phone. I remember the best feeling was waking up in the morning and seeing my coach or teachers messages saying we didn’t have to log into the meet. I knew I could sleep in and wait for my next class. For my middle school experience I honestly don’t remember much except playing sports and meeting my best friend. Everything else is honestly blurry from there. I know during Christmas time my step dad got COVID and we all had to quarantine in our rooms and my mom had to sleep on the couch. My dad always told me how horrible it felt and how he would sweat at night really bad and get shivers. The day of Christmas I remember my mom wanted to make it special so she set up our own little cookies to design and we just wore our mask at the table while still trying to enjoy time with each other. I remember my step sister started feeling sick and she said she lost her sense of smell and taste. She went to go get tested but came out negative but we all thought it was for sure COVID. After a few days we went to go see my dad and when he came back he actually went to go get tested and turned out positive. I felt bad because I thought it was mine and my sister’s fault since we technically didn’t feel anything but we also didn’t get tested to see if we did have COVID. It wasn’t proven 100% I got it but deep down I think I honestly did.”
Senior Katy Morgado: “In the beginning I was happy that we got more days off of school until I learned the real depth of how deadly the virus was. Me and my family stayed at home as much as possible only went out when it was really needed just for safety precautions we would spray almost everything with Lysol. It was a very scary experience especially since some of my family members did get COVID and it looked like they were suffering a lot thankfully nothing severe happened. Overall it was a pretty scary time and just took a while to be adjusted to how things were going to be for the next few months.”
Senior Julyette Rocha: “When COVID started, I was excited to be on break for just a week then the week turned into two years. It all happened so fast and I was devastated. I wasn’t able to finish middle school. I had goals set for the end of middle school but it all took a turn. We ended up spending the rest of middle school online which felt so much better. Yea there were people dying from COVID but me being online i developed a schedule. I would sleep during my lunch period and my friends would facetime me to wake up for my next class period. It all went well and I managed to pass my classes. No one in my family really got COVID so we got safe.”
Senior Mariela Rodriguez: “I honestly don’t remember much of COVID, but I know when we first got into spring break I just thought it was like normal spring break. I wasn’t really expecting much to happen because I was too busy worrying about other things, but I do remember that I was happy when I heard our break got extended. I wasn’t ready to go back to school. Shockingly, I was heavily impacted by COVID. It severely affected my life mentally and most specifically socially. I struggled a lot to go back to being social; I was overly anxious about everything. The first few months I did spend at home, but the second year like my 8th grade year I went out more often. Surprisingly, I didn’t get COVID, but I’m so glad because I don’t think I would’ve been able to handle that. I had a friend that got it freshman year and I had hangout with her and everything.”
Senior Miranda Salas: “I remember the chaos going around my school when what we thought was a rumor going around about there being a big spread of a virus called COVID; how once it was being announced on the intercom from my school no one knew how to react. Some were excited, others knew it was more serious than what it sounded, and teachers seemed even more scared as they were calling family members letting them know what was happening. Once the intercom rang and announced that our spring break was officially going to be extended everyone was shocked. Some people were recording and caught the exact moment when it was being reported that we weren’t coming back. People in shock looked at each other and without knowing that would be the last time seeing each other for a while. I recall everyday after the first week being a routine since everyone was scared to even get out of their property. After I look back and think of how after months we weren’t back to school, I was starting to get frustrated with not being able to do nothing. Just like individual students weren’t ready I remember teachers struggling to get the hang on schedules for school. Keep in mind it took a while for us to even get into the routine of going online study. Just like teachers, students would find it difficult to even show up to class since we were not getting any discipline. “
Senior Kristen Rodriguez: “Five years ago I was in 7th grade going on my spring break. I remember texting my mom to even pick me up early cause I wanted to start my break even earlier ,and she did because we had family visiting out of town because my sister had just had my nephew and they wanted to meet him. I remember hearing my mom and her cousin talking about if we heard about the virus going around ,and how they are preparing for it. The first time I heard about the virus was around November or December of 2019 I’m not quite sure which month it was but I saw an story about it on Snapchat and obviously since I saw it on Snapchat I immediately thought it was fake because I mean at times you can’t trust sources on there. I would say i was pretty excited about the break extending an extra week because who wouldn’t want an extra break off of school. At the time I would say COVID impacted me very badly because i had no way to really do my school work so it was affecting my grades but around that time i would stay home and i didn’t really enjoy it because I’ve always liked being able to go out. I did get COVID and so did some of my family members and i would say that was the worst feeling ever because in general I’ve never enjoyed being sick.”
Senior Alessandra Arrellano: “I remember being in middle school and being so happy we were about to be let out for spring break, my birthday week. Although I had to cancel my birthday party, I was at first excited to have a longer spring break but then I suddenly realized I wasn’t. At the time my grandpa had passed away due to COVID and then my whole family didn’t have iPhones; since it was during quarantine we had to borrow a family member’s iPhone so me and my sister could Facetime my grandpa to say our final goodbyes. For the most part I remember being at home for a while during the quarantine. At some point during the quarantine my aunt had gotten COVID and that’s what started the spiral of almost everyone in my house getting COVID. When my aunts and grandma had COVID it was during the same time so my cousin, my sister, and I agreed to go spend a couple of nights at my other tia’s apartment and soon enough I ended getting COVID while I was there, only me, nobody else. So, I left and went home with my mom, my grandma, aunt because we all had COVID, that night was July 4, 2022, and we weren’t able to celebrate with the rest of the family. I’m grateful we all were not sick for that long and that we didn’t get that sick, and were soon able to be together again.”
Senior Natalia Garcia: “At first, it felt like an extended spring break, and I wasn’t complaining. I didn’t think COVID was a big deal, so getting extra time off from school seemed great. But then the weeks kept adding up, and it started to feel weird being stuck at home all the time. I missed seeing friends, and online school just wasn’t the same. Looking back, it’s crazy how we all thought we’d be back in a couple of weeks, and then middle school basically disappeared. It’s definitely a time none of us will forget.”
Senior Brizeida Zuniga: “I just remember that it was COVID and we went to spring break and never went back to school. I wasn’t happy because I knew I wasn’t going to be able to see my friends anymore and have fun like I used too. I was happy it was being at home and not really having school but the online classes were not bad. It had been boring in the house and not being able to go to the store or anything and it really sucked because I would be just inside the house and be on my phone forever. In that time of COVID I thank god I never had anything to do with COVID I never got sick from it but heard other people get it. My middle school year was going great until COVID hit and never got the time to experience my 8th grade year and play the sports I wanted to play that year and be with my friends. Sure it wasn’t the best but it was alright.”