A Senior’s Perspective on the 2020-2021 School Year

As the summer concluded, it was reasonable to think that a return to school would happen. Methods to mitigate the risks of the ways Covid – 19 could spread had already been tried and tested, and so a back to school plan could be formed and students could once again learn in the environment they are familiar with, a classroom. The apprehensions held with the return to school did not necessarily revolve around the return itself, but more so with concerns about the sustainability of such, and, more importantly, how enjoyable school could be with so many restrictions. 

It would be a lie to say that the current school year is virtually indistinguishable from “normal” ones, because the absence of club meetings in the morning, lunch on the turf field, and both the Bain and Dageata gyms full of desks all provide differences that call for the most unique school year Oratory has ever seen. However, just because this year is so different, it should not nearly be thought of as an entirely bad thing, because even with the drawbacks brought by Covid-19 restrictions, some benefits are created. The main one is the extension of CWP, which for students right now, is an absolutely excellent resource to use for enhancing education. Lunch on the field and lightened dress code by allowing sneakers and khaki shorts also make school all the more enjoyable, and can very quickly appease all of the frustrations students may face with rather strict social distancing mandates and one way hall-ways that aren’t very convenient. 

What is evident to all students is the copious amount of time invested into forming this back to school plan. From a student’s perspective, it is evident that every way the plan could have been affected by any irregularities in a school day, has been thought of, and correspondingly corrected to allow for a very seamless integration of a completely foreign and novel logistic/ education system for which the school would operate through. By the end of the first day of school, the entire plan already felt like second nature, and it was operating with complete smoothness. We, as the OP student body, are to send our utmost thankfulness to the administrators who worked tirelessly to make such a plan possible. 

Senior year is intended to be special.. It’s why things ranging from the senior project to using the front bain doors in the morning can make our last year at Oratory an even more memorable one. Though all of these extra features of the school year can really provide some fun and meaningful benefits to the last year at Oratory, I would argue that the relationships made with one another trump any of these events, and I have no trouble believing that the year, with or without these events, would be just as special. If anything, I can only view the school year through a lens of gratefulness because the opportunity to even be in school in the first place is a rare one. As we as a student body continue to adapt to the new, temporary normal, school will continue to feel more and more natural. It’s certainly too early to know the specifics, which events will occur, which ones will be cancelled, but those specifics are not important. What is important is the opportunity we have to be in the company of one another, safely, and our ability to sustain that opportunity and embark on yet another successful school year.