BELLAIRE • MEMORIAL • RIVER OAKS • TANGLEWOOD • WEST UNIVERSITY

My new school universe

By Nico Thompson, age 17 | June 1, 2020

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ZOOMING Nico Thompson, a junior at Strake Jesuit College Preparatory, says life now is computer time, all the time.

My new school universe consists of waking up, throwing on an acceptable T-shirt over my pajama bottoms, then “Zooming” into my class downstairs. When I log on to Zoom, I see my friends, but only their heads. I quickly scan the Zoom heads to see if everyone is there. Sometimes, if the teacher is not there, we have to wait for him/her to let us into the Zoom world. Then the lecture starts. Most of the time, we have to stay for the full time, and sometimes we stay for about 30 minutes. Then we have time to work on assignments. Sometimes when I lose track of the time, and I’m in the kitchen getting something to eat or drink, my mom yells from her virtual office upstairs for me to sign in to class because my teacher just texted her – oops!

I miss the times when I complained about walking from one end of campus to the other for fear of being late to class or just being plain exhausted. My freshman year, I actually lost weight because I would walk three miles every day on campus! I really miss getting to walk outside to get to my classes. Most of all, I miss seeing and talking to my friends at lunch, during community time or just in passing. We do play virtual games like Uno, Chips and Guac, and Cards against Humanity. Although we have fun, it's just not the same as visiting with them in class or at their home to play games in person.

Now when I have a break from school, I jump on the trampoline outside by myself or play my violin outside. The neighbors can hear me and have said they enjoy it. I like that I can spread a little joy during this time when we cannot gather.

I really don't like that I am on the computer day and night, and that's hard for me to say because I was always fighting for more time on the computer. The only problem is that my time on the computer is filled with work.

Then I hit repeat for the next four days – welcome to my virtual school universe!

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