A Letter Submitted Recently To CCDN:
“Unspoken Reality”
The average student is in high school for 720 days. That’s about 5,040 hours. This time is the most crucial part of a person’s life. This period of adolescence is all about discovery. We find out what we like, what we don’t like, and we establish an identity. All the while, we are also held to educational and social standards, and the pressure of meeting these standards can be overwhelming.
As inequitable as it is, these standards determine our whole lives ahead of us, before we even have a chance to know who we want to be. All of this is happening in a short period of 720 days. Arguably, this period of a young adult’s life is the blueprint for what lies ahead. As a junior in high school, I now only have 297 days left to develop my blueprint, before the real world grabs a hold of it and starts to build. On top of everything: the standards, the pressures, and social development, Covid-19 is now thrown into the pile. This virus continues to steal the already limited, precious time that students have in school.
Each day a student loses an opportunity to go to school, resulting in another day that a development in our blueprint is lost. For many kids, the added pressures and stress from these current circumstances are detrimental to our mental and physical health. For some kids, the absence of school means an empty stomach. For others it means abuse. And for many it means a loss of social and educational growth. By no means am I underlying the severity of Covid-19 and its effects on physical health. This pandemic is not ideal, and I understand that we are learning and adapting as we move forward. But at what point will we recognize the other illnesses that this virus is causing?
At what point will we make effective efforts to help people suffering? The value of a life is priceless, but so is the quality. So many people in our country are dying, because we can’t “live”. We are suffering from mental illness as well as physical. I am not implying that physical health is of less value, but rather, I’m shining a light on the other side of the spectrum. What will life be like when this pandemic is over? Sure, the physical health of many will be improved, but how will we be emotionally? How will we build a future if our blueprints are completely destroyed?
We control the outcome of this difficult situation. If we put guidelines in place that are beneficial for our mental and physical health, we will be able to exit this storm with hope and unity. Our blueprints may be adjusted by our hardships, but they won’t be destroyed. I don’t have a perfect answer for the problems we are facing, but Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Do what you can with all you have, wherever you are.” We have made many changes to our lives to adapt to the severity of this virus, but what else can we do?
Are we content with what has become our new normal? Or will we take action against the rising problems around us? The more we do, the more we will get out of this situation. The more we fight, the more we will persevere. Covid is much more than a respiratory illness, and if we don’t address the secondary effects it is having on us emotionally and socially, things will only get worse.
Yesterday I lost the opportunity to be at school for the next 14 days. Because of this I will miss 70 hours of effective education. 70 hours of the most crucial and developmental part of my life. 70 hours that could prevent me from graduating. 70 hours that could prevent me from graduating. 70hours that could prevent me from going to college. 70 hours that could change my whole future. I consider myself lucky, because I have only been quarantined once, while many students have missed countless hours of in person schooling. We NEED to be in school. Our future is essential.
Tynlie Neal
Junior Clinton Prairie High School