The daily lives of many people have been impacted due to the COVID-19 outbreak. With having to self-isolate, adults have had to file for unemployment and students have transitioned to online schooling. For high schoolers, the isolation can be particularly hard. Schools have begun to cancel prom and even graduation — both of  which are seen as important milestones of being a teenager.

Online schooling has been hard on some teenagers, and some  students have felt like the workload teachers have been giving them has been more than usual. 

Junior Rebecca Anema said she feels as if she has gotten more work than normal from teachers. 

“The online schoolwork is a ton more than if we were in school,” she said. “ I work from 10 a.m. to 5 at night.”

Junior Jen Reid said she thinks some teachers are not taking students’ circumstances into account and pointed out that some students have been working jobs during the COVID-19 closure.

“Teachers should chill on giving so much work. They don’t realize that this is affecting students as well,” she said.  “I have eight classes and it’s an overwhelming amount of work that I’m assigned. Students also have jobs and many of them are essential workers.”

Upperclassmen also worry about their big milestones of being a teenager vanishing before their very eyes. Due to people having to social distance, students wonder whether they will have traditional experiences like prom and graduation.

Junior Abby Dieterman said she feels bad for seniors.

“I feel so bad for the seniors this year. They could be deprived of one of the few joys of actually making it through school,” she said. “There should be a way we can still hold the ceremony, with masks and gloves. The seniors deserve it.”

Senior Rachel Barton said she  feels bad for other seniors.

“It would be really sad if seniors miss out on the things they have waited years for,” she said. “We have had many, many years of school and it would be awful not to have a graduation ceremony.”

Barton also said that she would rather see graduation “rescheduled than a complete cancellation.” 

Sophomore Dominic Bush said that even if everything being shut down is unfortunate, postponing rather than cancelling things is the best way to go.

“We are undergoing very unfortunate and unfair circumstances. There are sacrifices that we all must make to ensure the safety of ourselves and of others,” he said. “However, this is a very important time for many students to not only live their dream of going to prom, among other things, but to find themselves and be young.”