While we grow accustomed to quarantine and online school, it can be easy for us to complain about our situation. We miss going to school, we are stuck at home all day, and our social lives are taking a hit. Obviously, our current situation is not the ideal way to spend our days, let alone our second semester of senior year, but it would be terribly short-sighted not to be grateful for what we do have.

Students around the world are dealing with the exact same hardships we are in regard to school. Young children, teens, and college students now spend their days at home, finding a quiet place to do our schoolwork. While it can be tempting to only think about how we ourselves are affected, NA students — like students in prosperous schools across the country — certainly have the upper hand in this situation compared to many other students in poorer parts of America and around the world. 

According to UNESCO, over 1.5 billion students worldwide are currently out of school, which is 89% of the global student population. 188 countries have nationwide school closures, and the remaining countries (including the United States) have localized closures. 

Of course, most of us would agree that we would rather be in school than at home, but at least we still get an education during the pandemic. Many students around the world do not have the extensive online learning availability that we do.  And in the worst cases, the cessation of education opens the door to factors that may change their lives forever.

Having internet access and technology like personal laptops is a luxurious privilege that we can all too easily take for granted. Plenty of other students do not have any technology at home or have to share devices with their entire household.  We, on the other hand, can interact virtually with teachers, complete online assignments, watch informative videos, and learn the material we need during these difficult times.

Lately, I’ve been trying to remind myself of the privileges I have compared to others. For some, school is a safe place, an escape from various struggles dealing with their family life. While my family has had our fair share of disagreements while confined in one house around the clock, it is a safe and comfortable place to be quarantined in. I am not missing out on meals when I’m not in school or missing out on other necessary resources for my physical and mental wellbeing, yet many students are. Even some students at NA. 

On a larger scale, I try to imagine how tough life is right now for students in developing countries, where simply getting an education is a challenge on its own. Based on data from the effects of the Ebola crisis a few years ago, UNESCO predicts that the pandemic will cause many students to drop out of school due to the new economic stress placed on families.

Even if everything scheduled in my life gets pushed back a few months, eventually I will take my AP tests, I will graduate, I will go to college, and my life will continue as the coronavirus pandemic becomes a brief setback on a much larger scale. For others, however, the coronavirus has rid them of their education, potentially forever, and set them up for a future filled with even more economic hardship and distress. 

An recent article from the global children’s charity TheirWorld states, “Without education for prolonged periods, young people’s childhoods may be lost to child labour, early marriage, recruitment by armed groups, exploitation and discrimination.” 

That statement helped me to put my situation into perspective.  While I was sad to learn that school would close for a few months, fears such as those stated in the quotation above never even crossed my mind. 

The pandemic has certainly taken its toll on my life, in addition to the lives of everyone else in the world. The quality of education we are receiving online is unquestionably lower than it was when we were at school.  But at least we are still getting an education.

My entire daily routine has been thrown into disarray, but in the end, my life is not threatened solely because our schools have closed. Tragically, other students’ lives are. 

I am devastated about the possibility of missing out on Prom, graduation, and the other cherished senior-year events as much as anyone else. Our feelings about missing out in school are completely valid and our complaints should not be silenced. But in the long run, it is important to remember how lucky we really are right now compared to too many other teenagers around the world.