Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic struck not just the US, but the entire world, we have been struggling to find a way to adapt to this new virus, and how we can complete the things we need to do each day while still preventing the spread of the disease. The pandemic, which has lasted since March of this year, has been one of the few things in the news that we, as Chesterton students, have witnessed firsthand. 

     One of the most prevalent and drastic changes that the Duneland School Corporation has had to make has been the introduction of fully remote classes. Since the end of the previous school year, when the Coronavirus became a fully worldwide pandemic, Duneland has had to repeatedly change how the remote schooling system would work. When covid caused the school year to end on such an unfortunate note for students last year, nobody quite knew exactly what was going to be ahead for the upcoming school year. The district was left with a need to drastically change the way our schools operate for the health and safety of the students and staff. This, on top of frantically trying to figure out a way to make the rest of the 2020-2021 school year work, has led to a lot of stress and much harder work for everyone here at Chesterton High School.  Makena Linzy, a senior, talked about a major problem that students are struggling with, and struggled with even before coronavirus, that is making things worse.

     “There are some teachers that either just don’t give enough information in their notes, or they just don’t explain it thoroughly enough for me to entirely grasp the concept. And then some teachers just don’t do google meets at all, or don’t reach out to students. They’re just sort of like ‘teach yourself,’ and I struggle a bit with that, but usually I can figure something out; there’s always youtube videos to watch and stuff like that,” she said.

     Despite these struggles, students seem to be pulling through rather well. Despite having obvious, normal, daily struggles, students seem to have adjusted fairly well to the current situation, which sophomore Danny Serianni spoke about. 

     “At first I thought it was going to be way more difficult than it has been.  But after a few weeks I have begun to understand the schedule as well as teacher expectations, so it’s not really been as hard as I anticipated.  I’m glad I chose to enroll in remote learning,” Serianni claimed.

     Of course, despite the adjustments, it can still be incredibly stressful on both the students and staff. Therefore, many have tried finding anything they can in order to keep occupied during isolation. Herr Martinson, a German teacher here at the school, discussed stress relieving techniques he has developed to keep himself from being overwhelmed during these unprecedented times. 

     “Well, I’ll be honest, something that really helped me, this may sound really stupid, but Animal Crossing for the Nintendo Switch came out. I’m a big fan anyway, and I was waiting for that, and it came out at just the right time, I’ve really enjoyed that,” Martinson started, “and one really important thing [for me] was ‘go outside every day, no matter what.’ Even if it wasn’t the best weather,“ Martinson concluded.

     There are many things that both students and staff can do to help with stress during these difficult situations. So if you feel like you are becoming overwhelmed by everything that’s going on, you should do what you can to reach out for assistance that you need.  Give yourself as much time as you need, and do whatever you can to stay as calm as possible, because, in the end, we all need to try to make the rest of today the best of today.