Starting online school in the summer

Entry 1

Dear Diary,

Today my mother told me about a job offer in my area. I had already been looking for a job for a while and I had my heart set on trying out environmental work, but my parents really wanted me to try out this job they mentioned. It was an online journalism institution where I would be expected to attend meetings through Discord and turn in writing through google classroom. At first, I really did not like the idea of this job. It sounded exactly like an online school. The last thing I wanted was to be caught up in some scheme by my parents to make summer some sort of educational experience. However, because it was relatively easy to work, and the pay was fair, I complied and agreed to the interview. Honestly, a large part of me now wanting this job is because if I get it I’ll be making more money than my older brother, which I know will anger him. I’ve never gone to an interview before so I’m kind of nervous even though it doesn’t take place for a few weeks. I suppose all I can do until then is wait and prepare. I heard not too many people had already applied so I’m starting to feel pretty confident in my chances.

Entry 2

Dear Diary,

Today was my first day of work. After finishing my interview months back today was the day I would finally start my first job. I had been nervous after the interview for weeks because the number of candidates just kept on increasing. This made me think they were trying to find better employees because they weren’t satisfied with the ones that applied, but regardless I had been hired anyway. For the first time all Summer I had to wake up to my alarm clock, which was a big change of pace compared to my usual routine of setting an alarm as a suggestion and then ignoring it completely. The day started at 11 a.m. so I decided to wake up at 9 a.m., which was easily my first mistake of the day. For the entire morning, all I could think about was getting onto work on time due to my fear of arriving late on the first day. I tried so hard to relax but I was just so jittery I may have checked the time 20 times this morning. Somehow I managed to relax a little and get through the waiting period, and then it was finally time to start my first day. Surprisingly it wasn’t too bad. I was a little disappointed I hadn’t done any writing today but I don’t know what I was expecting for them to dump on us the first day. It felt an awful lot like online zoom classes, and I managed through that plus now I’m getting paid for it. This new job should be easy enough for me.

-John

Entry 3

Dear Diary,

Tomorrow I start my first day of physical school and I am practically a wreck. I know I’ve been complaining for the past year about how much I hate all this quarantine stuff and how zoom classes have been slowly killing me, but now that I’m going back to normal I’m questioning why I took all that for granted. Honestly, I’m not the slightest bit confused as to why I feel the way I do. I have been living in near-complete isolation from the outside world for over a year, why did I ever expect myself to just be able to go back to normal overnight? No, no, no, this is my new normal, as far as I should be concerned at the moment this is how things have always been. At least that’s what my brain thinks because it’s having a real hard time accepting the reality that is tomorrow. I think once I revert back to rationality I’ll realize that it’s not going to be that bad. In fact, it may be even better than how I left off. According to the school, in my class, only my closest friends are actually attending in-person classes, it’s like the school individually selected who I like to spend time with and put me in a class with them just for me. All I really have to be nervous about is meeting my teachers. I have never met any of them, yet somehow I’ve known them for the entire school year. I’m just glad it’s not my job to introduce myself to them because I don’t know how I would break the ice with someone like that.

Entry 4

Dear diary,

Today was the first day of online school. After being isolated for nearly a month it felt good to finally be back in some sort of way to my classroom. My class was at 9 a.m. today and was supposed to last until 9:50. Very different from the normal 8:00 – 3:00 schedule I was used to, but it was still something I suppose. I was expecting the teachers to force everyone to be sitting professionally and having their cameras on, but to my surprise, not a single person had theirs on and the teacher had absolutely zero control over us to make us turn them on. She tried at least three times today but not a single camera was ever turned on for the entire fifty minutes. Honestly, today was awful, I have no idea why I wanted to try that. It was unbearably boring, all I could do was sit and listen and occasionally do schoolwork. I really hope this won’t last the whole year because there is absolutely no way I can get used to this no matter how long I’m stuck with it. I suppose for now though I’m stuck with it for at least another month, so the best I can do is prepare myself for the worst term of my life.