* Phone alarm noise *

The alarm goes off. It is officially the start of a different lifestyle, at least for a while. Well, that’s what I was told. Trying to navigate the online world while the network connection works then fails, and so on, makes it impossible to find a moment for a relaxing breath. No matter how hard I try I simply cannot find a break. Class after class, my mind cannot stay fixed on what it should be. The gloomy look of the sky peeking in through my bedroom window, the drag of what feels like weights on my eyes, the paws scratching on my door, the load of assignments that have been dumped on me like a garbage truck. It never ends.

Trying to get through another day, I faked it all. Never feeling energized. Never feeling motivated. Never getting the break I felt was needed. Never feeling like I would make it through. Some classes had been better than others, like when the silence broke due to a joke that wasn’t even that funny. I felt bad for all the walls and ceiling fans my teachers had been getting, but one moment in time, I felt lost as to why I was the only one and eventually stopped showing my face. I could no longer fake it for others and had to do what was needed for myself.

I grew more drained, as if I was running a million miles but not going anywhere just by the end of every day, not knowing why. Maybe it was waking up two minutes before going onto the dreaded zoom call. Or it could have been from me gluing my rear to my bed or on some occasions my couch. No number of naps could revive me from the dead feeling that filled my body. The same four walls, the same scene, and what seemed like that same lesson being taught. Every. Day. Feeling trapped in my own mind, I cried and cried yet no one but me heard the noise. Yet still, the same routine day in and day out was being dragged on. With no air to breathe.

This narrative, written for College & Career Writing with Mr. Stastny, answers the question “What was life like for students?” during the last school year.