By Brayden Manning

April 8, 2021

As we start the second week back five days, students have felt mixed emotions with the return. I personally have had some issues with my very first days back.

One of my biggest issues is the amount of people in the school now. For three-fourths of the year, kids were used to not seeing a lot of people. I almost feel like the school population has tripled since last year, but, in reality, it got smaller. With about a third of the students being online, there could be a whole lot more students in the school. 

The hallways are making me the most mad. People don’t know how to stay on one side, and they group up in the middle of the hallway or right in front of the stairs. 

With more students, the teachers have gotten stricter. Some teachers are actually enforcing a seating chart, which, as a senior, is ridiculous. I feel like seating charts should only be enforced if the students give a reason to, especially since some people have not seen their friends since last March.

One thing that really got on some seniors’ nerves was the whole outside-lunch situation. Since freshman year, we have all wanted to sit outside. Now, all four classes are allowed to sit outside, which really made some seniors mad because they have been wanting the outside to themselves. I understand there are not that many tables available, but outside is a mess. They say two to a table, but then there are four to five kids sitting next to one another on the wall. It makes no sense at all. The lounge and outside should be off limits to the underclassmen and should be exclusive for the seniors. 

While on the topic of lunch, the line is way too long. I am so impatient that I leave the line after waiting two minutes.

I think all the issues I experience circle  back to me not being used to seeing so many people. Being at school five days a week does have a plus though. Being able to see all your friends and be in school longer is a plus. If I was a junior, I would much rather have two days a week. But since it’s my last quarter, I rather just fight through it and go five days a week. Also, it’s fun being able to see more people and being able to talk to people in person.

As the year concludes, I’m going to suck it up and take the good and the bad.