For many people, COVID-19 came in like Miley Cyrus on a wrecking ball. 

   Lives were overturned, many family members could no longer gather and enjoy themselves, grief covered the world like a wet blanket, and schools shut down. Enduring the era of COVID-19 was like trudging through a battlefield of online schooling, where we were prisoners in our own homes. We’re finally seeing the sun shine again after such a lengthy storm, since schools have opened up.

   Right?

   As we settle back into school, students find themselves with new problems. At the time when lockdown began, I was a freshman, but now I am a junior. I was already aware of the long, strenuous hours that went into a normal school day. Now that we are back in-person, I once again have to endure the tense speed walks across the building that force my calves into overdrive. 

   Some of the new freshmen and sophomores who did not attend hybrid school are just now being exposed to the experiences I had for only six months. They are thrown into the reality of high school by having to wake up at the crack of dawn, make it to the bus on time, and have the stamina to withstand the strenuous school day. No more going downstairs to get Cheetos out of the cabinet during the break between math and English class, no more sleeping through history, and absolutely no more last-minute homework as the teacher begins to collect it.

   Not only are students adjusting to the new school climate, they are also being held to a higher standard. It was easy to blow off studying for a test or quiz and simply hop onto Google. All the answers were at our fingertips and every test might as well have been an open-note test. 

   No longer. 

   Academic integrity reintroduces itself to students, as they are once again held responsible for test preparation. Study routines must be revamped and students must hold themselves accountable for their work. 

   After such a long layoff, it is great to be in the building once again. Things are returning to their default settings and students must adjust. Those that had a hard time finding the motivation to do their work can now be more ambitious, since they meet with their teachers again in-person instead of on a screen that they can ignore. 

   Returning to school has its positives, but with it also comes the great responsibility of becoming a young adult.