As COVID-19 regulations and mask mandates let up, high schoolers in Chesterfield, Missouri are getting back into a somewhat normal school year. In light of the worldwide pandemic, there are all types of students coming back to in-person school, with lots of different feelings towards the 2021-2022 school year. There are sophomores who are an entire year behind and have not stepped foot into high school and juniors who have missed out on their entire second year of high school.

Not only are there students who have not yet experienced high school, there is debate on whether being back in school is good COVID-19 or destructive in getting us back to what life was like pre COVID-19. For health reasons, Ian Thomas (12) is currently enrolled in online school.

“Being online for me is important because my safety and my family’s is important to me and I don’t have to worry about if the school needs to shut down because there were too many kids catching COVID-19,” Thomas said.

In order for kids and parents to keep a record of how many kids get sick, Parkway has added a positive case and quarantine statistics page on the official parkway website.

What we experienced over the past year and a half is something no one in our lifetimes have been through before. Because students were online so long, many got used to the way of life.

Chase Giancola (10) is back in-person now,  but was in school and participated in hybrid schooling that lasted a short while in November. “It was nice because I was able to be home on certain days and sleep in, while still getting to see my friends on other days, ” Giancola said

Even though many students got used to the way of life over the past year and a half it also opened the eyes of some other students to what they missed from being in-school.

Chris McColl (11) spends most of his time golfing and hanging out with friends. He was online from the end of his freshman year until the fall of his junior year.

“One thing I really missed from being in school and also something I look forward to while being back is the day to day interactions with my friends,” McColl said.

Being online for a year-and-a-half and being away from your school friends is saddening and being back in school brings many students joy.

Joe Siervo (12)  is a three sport athlete who plays football in the fall, basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring. Siervo has plans to play baseball at the next level.

“I feel like I didn’t get the full experience because my sophomore year got shortened and we were only in school for a couple days out of the week whenever we were actually able to go to school,” Siervo said.

Unfortunately because of the worldwide pandemic, we have all missed out on certain aspects of our lives and that is something we will not get to relive but something we should learn from if another issue like this arises. High school is a time many people recognize as the good times or glory days. Not being able to get the full experience is saddening for many students and leaves them feeling robbed.