My teachers all have one thing in common (other than the fact that they all teach at the same middle school.). They can all say, with certainty, that I am prone to zoning out or disassociating in class. On top of that, I am not the best at turning in my work on time, or occasionally at all. These two facts can be attributed to several things, but all of those things eventually connect and fall back on one thing: I have a tremendously short attention span.

ADHD runs in my family, both my parents have it, and 3 of my grandparents do as well. I believe that my inability to control my impulses and lack of attention span might be attributed to picking up on the behaviors of my parental figures in my childhood, or perhaps there’s a deep, underlying emotional issue at work behind the scenes. Perhaps I just have ADHD, which according to Understood and Webmd is hereditary, but I have not been officially diagnosed with anything because it was never really considered, so the jury is still out on it.

Getting to the point, the new remote learning that SCUCISD and several other school districts and schools in America and several other countries, has had very mixed effects on me. 

For one thing, school was the only thing giving me some semblance of a healthy sleep schedule. Where I used to go to bed at 11 p.m., I now go to bed at any time between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m., and where I used to wake up at 7 a.m., I now wake up between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. The passage of time has been completely lost to me. For example, two hours ago it was last Sunday, and I blinked and now it’s this Saturday. I’m sure my teachers are exasperated from the snail-paced rate I’ve been turning in my assignments.

On the bright side, however, this new style of learning has affected me positively as well. I may be turning in my assignments way too close to the end of the week, but since this has started, I haven’t had one single late or missing assignment. On top of that, I finally have enough time to read as much as I’d like to. That being, a lot. It seems as though an immense pressure has been taken off my shoulders.

Basically, what I’m trying to say is that online learning, like everything, has its ups and downs, and for every negative thing, there is a positive thing to balance it out. In the end, it is impressive that our schools have risen to the call of action so quickly and have allowed us to continue our education in the midst of these troubling times.