Letter from the Editor: Coming of Age During the Coronavirus Pandemic

By: Zoë Felfle, Senior

The appearance and subsequent spread of COVID-19 has led to a jarring interruption to the lives of everyone in the world.

Our decision as an editorial staff is to keep the articles posted in the March edition of the Phoenix Flyer the same as was planned prior to the quarantine, since most of the articles were submitted prior to school closures. Our next edition, April 2020, will be an exclusive COVID-19 edition dedicated to documenting the experiences and stories of students during this tumultuous time. That said, I will reflect on these past two weeks that have felt more like months, as schools closed in Florida on March 13, 2020. 
 
We have been asked to stay in our homes, self-quarantining and social distancing in order to stall the growth of the Coronavirus pandemic. For high school students in particular, the timing of this pandemic has led to an amalgamation of emotions as we get closer and closer to the end of the school year. 

For juniors, this has caused more stress, as tests like the SAT, one of the most important tests of their lives, have been indefinitely cancelled for public safety. 

Meanwhile, for seniors, more and more of our events like Grad Bash and Senior Breakfast are postponed or cancelled. Furthermore, we are quarantined just as Regular Decision college decisions are being released, so no matter what we feel, this month has been full of highs and lows unrelated to the pandemic. 

For everyone, Advanced Placement (AP) tests and End of Course Exams are cancelled.  The infamous two to three hour AP tests are being adjusted to forty-five minute FRQs, and we are rushing to cope with the new online testing method.  Our teachers are at home digitally mastering the web, learning Zoom and Microsoft Teams, trying to keep us on track for our last quarter of our school year.

Yet, as we cope with online schooling and adjust ourselves to our new state of life, many of my peers feel moments of hopelessness or isolation. We may long for our friends or significant others and wish for a view other than our own backyards. 

Students are coping with this immediate adjustment to our lives with apps like Zoom, which connect us to our teachers and classmates in order to have real-time lessons. And, people like me are connecting with our friends through Facetime, Zoom, Skype, and various platforms of social media to try to maintain as much normalcy as possible. 

However, we ARE adjusting for the sake of everyone in the country. Per capita, the United States has the most confirmed cases of coronavirus in the world, reaching higher than both China and Italy, and as of now this growth is only increasing. As of April 1, 2020 we have not yet reached the peak of the curve and most likely will not reach it for several months. This is our reality.  That is why we must do everything we can to drop the peak of this curve. We must stay inside and cope for the sake of our grandparents and our parents and the people all around us that may not have the immune systems or lungs to fight the disease. 

One day, there is no doubt that this pandemic will be in the history books, so as we come of age during this tumultuous, isolatory time, we should stay on the right side of history.  For now, we are passing the time, as some read a book or watch the TV shows you’ve been dying to see. Others are baking or cooking or cleaning.

​Whatever we do, my generation does not want to be seen as the people willing to sacrifice others for our own enjoyment. We want to be seen as the brave young men and women who stayed indoors, quarantining themselves to make sure the rest of the country and the rest of the world remain safe. We may have lost the “social contact” during our last quarter of our school year, but it is our duty to protect ourselves and the rest of the population.  Someday, we will tell the story of our survival of the 2020 Pandemic, but for now on behalf of the Phoenix Flyer and the rest of the world, stay indoors and stay safe.