A few weeks ago, on a Monday in my Algebra 2 class, two students got pulled out of class. They didn’t come back. Later during that same class, six more students got pulled out.

Then an announcement called for all football players to grab their stuff and go to the gym, so more of the class left. By the end of class, we were down to less than 10 students who were not sent home to quarantine.

I thought I got lucky.

Eventually, after the calls and contact tracing, at the end of school Friday, I found out I would have to quarantine, too.

I was pretty upset. I like seeing my friends at school. And after being stuck at home in the spring, I was worried that I wouldn’t be successful doing school online. I was also a little worried about getting sick.

However, after my week of staying home I have realized that there are some good things that come from being quarantined. 

More sleep. I didn’t have to wake up in the morning until right before my first class. This gave me an extra 45 minutes of sleep. I was also able to sneak in a few naps.

Shorter classes. When you’re in school online the teachers don’t keep you in class the whole time. This meant, I had way more time to get my homework done during class time.

Better amenities. At home I could grab a snack from the kitchen whenever I wanted. And no offense to school lunches, but the meals at home are just better. Even when they were leftovers. 

Starbucks runs. My mom was able to work from home for a few of the days, and somehow I was able to trick her into picking me up a caramel macchiato “to help get me through my morning classes.”

Longer breaks. During the school day,  it can get pretty tiring going from class to class with no breaks other than for lunch. When you are doing online school, you just have to go to the part of class that has a zoom. This gives you several breaks during the day. I liked being able to go outside and get some fresh air. I also enjoyed the extra time to play with my dogs, Gracie and Dexter. 

I didn’t hate quarantining and online school as much as I did last spring because it was shorter. I saw it as more of a break. But I’m happy to be back in school and that I’m Covid free.