The Pandemic Student Diaries: Manitoba high school students reflect on a school year cut short

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted life as we know it. Students are no exception. On March 31, Manitoba's minister of education announced an indefinite postponement for in-person classes for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year.

For some, this change has meant the cancellation of provincial sports championships and exams, or class trips postponed. For others, it has meant not being able to attend prom or high school graduation ceremonies with their peers, teachers, family and friends.   

CBC Manitoba reached out to some high school students to ask them how they are adapting to "the new normal" and to see how they are making sense of this new reality. 

Here's what they had to say.

Growing up in a pandemic

By Oliver Heaman-Warne

Going through COVID-19 as a teenager is strange. 

It's boring to be stuck inside and not be able to see most of your friends and family. It kinda feels like the world is falling apart, with people hoarding food and toilet paper. 

I used to spend my days going outside and messing around with friends, but because the world is so chaotic right now it's hard to do that. Now all I do is read, play games, practise the bagpipes, do schoolwork, and once in a while, go for walks or bike rides. 

Most of my friends are locked up inside with nothing to do except their school work. Doing school work remotely is challenging. You don't have face-to-face interactions with your teacher to support you, but you do have every other distraction in your life getting in the way. Doing school work from home also has some benefits, like not having a schedule that you have to follow — I could get up at 10 a.m. and work till 7 p.m. if I wanted to. 

I could work on the thing that I'm the farthest behind on all day. But because of working from home, I am going to miss out on many things: all of my music competitions; playing in Folklorama; and most of all, I'm going to miss going to Scotland with my band for the 2020 World Pipe Band Championships — something we have been preparing for for three years, and which would have been my first time being off this continent. 

It's nerve-racking to have to make sure you don't spread the virus to your grandparents or anyone else.​- Oliver Heaman-Warne

The only people I see right now are my closest friends and family. It's challenging not seeing many people. After a while you start to go crazy by seeing the same people over and over again. You have to watch out for people wherever you go outside, to see if they are coughing, wheezing, sneezing, or anything else that could be a sign of the virus. 

It's nerve-racking to have to make sure you don't spread the virus to your grandparents or anyone else, whether that's by not seeing them or just washing your hands and not touching your face whenever you see them. 

Overall, the virus has made me more aware of the importance of sanitation and how the smallest things can spread to the entire world. It's made me respect store workers and everyone who continues to work through the virus, knowing all of the dangers involved in it. 

It's made my grandparents feel more vulnerable to me, because the virus could easily infect and possibly kill them. It's also made me respect my teachers and other students more because everyone continues to work through this difficult time. 

All in all, going through COVID-19 has made me more aware of the challenges of going through a pandemic and more appreciative of friends and family.

Classes, interrupted

By Olicel Carungay

COVID-19 has affected my life in so many more ways than I had ever imagined. It all happened so fast — one day I was in school, just doing what I usually do. The next, there's an announcement about how school is going to be suspended for three weeks. 

At first I thought of this as a "break" from school, but it's proving to be much more complicated than I anticipated, especially now that school has been suspended indefinitely. 

When we transitioned to online classes, I thought it was going to be easy, but that's not really the case. It seems like every day, my pile of homework keeps growing and growing. 

I know that the reason for all the work is so that we do not fall behind, but it feels like I've gotten more homework these past two weeks than I have the entire year. 

Readjusting to getting all our notes online has definitely been a challenge, especially since I'm the kind of person that relies on and prefers face-to-face communication to learn, rather than reading off of a computer screen. I know that if I ever needed any help I could always just email my teachers, but sometimes it can take a while for them to answer, and it just isn't the same. 

There are also so many things that I miss so much. I miss my friends, some teachers, choir and student council meetings, and after-school badminton practices. It's a shame that we won't get to finish the rest of the year. 

Regardless of all that, being cooped up all day at home has also given me opportunities to do things I didn't use to have time for. 

For example, I've gotten more time to spend time with my family. Before, we were all usually busy with work and school, but now we've been talking more and doing more activities together, even if it is just inside the house. 

It seems like it will still be a while until we return to the old normal.- Olicel Carungay

I've also gotten the chance to do things such as reading, baking and writing again — activities that I used to enjoy but just never had time to do, at least until now. 

All of this still feels unreal. So many things have happened already and yet there's so many more things that can still happen. It seems like it will still be a while until we return to the old normal. 

It's scary that we have no idea what will happen in the future and that we have no way of controlling it.

The death of time

By Sequoia Robertson

It's strange to know that school is officially done for the year, my final year. 

I'm done high school.

When I heard that schools were closing due to COVID-19, I felt that I didn't have enough time. That time was moving too quickly. I hoped that it would only be a setback and that I would have my last month or two of school, you know, actually at school. 

Despite this huge loss, I would argue that there is also a huge gain.- Sequoia Robertson

Honestly, I love school! I love the classes, I love the teachers that care so much, and I love the challenge. But now, it seems that the graduates of 2020 will have a new challenge: accepting the fact that we're missing our last semester of school, including our graduation. 

Despite this huge loss, I would argue that there is also a huge gain. I've been left with a lot of free time on my hands.

When COVID-19 made its way to Winnipeg, it was like time died. Days that used to slip by now elongated, blurring the divide between minutes and hours, days and weeks. What day is it again? How many days have I been in the house? Who cares!

If the ways that I'm most affected by this pandemic are that I have more time to do things like reading and art and poetry, spend more time with the people I love, and get to escape busy life for a few months, then I would say that I am extremely fortunate. If losing a few months of school is the only major thing I lose to COVID, then man oh man, I got it good.

When I notice things now, they seem sweeter than before. I'd forgotten how amazing it is to do nothing. To just let thoughts bounce around inside my head. It's sometimes nice to just shut up, stare out the window, and listen to the wind. 

When this is over I'll remember how I loved spending the morning reading. Every sip of tea is a small beauty. Every sketch is a masterpiece. 

I will not mourn what might have happened if it weren't for COVID-19, because those things cannot happen. I don't know how the world will be different after all of this, and I hate the pain this virus has caused, but I cannot change that. All I can change is how I will let it affect myself, and I refuse to label this time of isolation as wasted time.

The birds still sing

By Katrina Lengsavath

I turned 18 the day it was first announced that schools would be closing due to COVID-19. Chatting over Korean shaved ice, my friends and I still felt heavy with the unknown. 

Skip ahead three weeks: schools are closed indefinitely. Welcome to the real world — we're making history! I would've wanted to make history some other way, not because the nation has to sit inside and think about what we've done to deserve this. 

It's heartbreaking to be a graduating student this year. It's sad for anyone who had big plans and events to anticipate in the upcoming weeks and months. 

We might just come out of this a little more kind, empathetic and eager to live life to the fullest.- Katrina Lengsavath

High school isn't everything, but when you're a teenager, it can feel like your everything. I'm going to miss every aspect of graduation deeply. I was going to make so many memories with my friends and teachers after spring break, when the sun came out brighter and we were reminded that the most valuable parts of school weren't the marks. 

Music is one of the passions I hold close to my heart. I have been singing with my high school's senior choir and auditioned chamber choir ever since I was in Grade 9. 

I have a soft spot for the current and former generations of these ensembles. I will have sung at every grad event since 2017, except for my own. I've watched all these celebratory days unfold, except for my own. 

Don't even get me started on dance and athletics. High school is a place where I grew to practise resilience, find empowerment in pursuing the activities I love, and connect with people from all walks of life. 

Stepping into this building for my first day of school — a chilly September morning almost six years ago — my 12-year-old self never imagined that she would be capable of doing so much and feeling so much here. These are just snippets of the milestones I will never get back. 

I am grateful that my family, friends and teachers are safe and healthy. One parent works in a grocery store, and the other manages IT in a clinic — it makes me nervous when they still have to go out to interact with the community. If we all do our part to follow pandemic protocol, essential service workers such as my parents and individuals like them have less to worry about.  

We are safe at home, but who's to say we don't find the feeling of home in other people and other places too. The birds outside our window are chirping. Even in times like this, the birds still sing. 

Knowing that our lives must adapt temporarily for a greater good gives this time away meaning. Having things to miss proves that they were meaningful. I think it would be worse if there was nothing to miss. 

We might just come out of this a little more kind, empathetic and eager to live life to the fullest.

About The Pandemic Student Diaries:

Students featured in this story participated in Project Point of View (Project POV) in December 2019. Project POV is a storytelling mentorship initiative that paired CBC Manitoba reporters with high school students from Gordon Bell High School. Together, they crafted compelling personal narratives.