March 13, 2020 was the last day I saw my friends at school. Spring break started early last year, which meant I had a lot of time to talk to my friends. This was different from when there was still school because I could only talk to them for a few hours after school. Since quarantine started, I stayed up until 3-4 am talking to friends. When online school started, that became a different story.

   I liked online school so much to the point where I’d wake up at 7 am and work the whole entire day. I only took short breaks to have a small conversation with anyone that texted me. However, there were days where I FaceTimed a friend to work on assignments together. I made it a goal to finish my work for the entire week early, so that I was able to stay up on weekdays. 

   In May of 2020, my best friend at the time suggested we watch The Office together using Netflix Party. He watched the first season with me, and from season 2 episode 2, I finished it on my own. We also went on Zoom calls while watching movies like the Back to the Future series, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before movies, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. In addition to those calls, we also went on FaceTime and Houseparty. On Houseparty we played games such as 2 Truths, 1 Lie and Quick Draw. These games were fun to play because there were a variety of options to choose from. For example, Quick Draw was funny because we didn’t do well drawing the words given. 

   I started to drift from a couple of friends at the end of the school year. Before, I would talk to 5 people everyday. Five became two and during the summer, I’d go a week or two not talking to people. On the times I came back and texted my friends, they told me I changed. They believed that I behaved in a more mature way.

   Sophomore year rolled around and I started talking to people more frequently about school and life in general. I also began tutoring for Mu Alpha Theta, so I spent time talking to my friends while working on math.

   Towards the end of the second quarter, I was gone for two weeks and didn’t have my phone. Aden and Natallie texted me while I was gone, but I didn’t respond until November 22 and I told them what happened. They made me realize that they’re always there when I need them.

   I hung out with Ale at the end of the year and it was nice because I haven’t seen him since March. We went to the mall, Target, and AMC. We updated each other with things that happened in the past few months as we walked around the mall. I texted Connor, my other best friend, who I haven’t talked to in awhile and ever since then, we’ve texted each other everyday to this day.

   Semester 2 started after winter break and I decided to switch from online learning to on campus. At first I was alone, but then Natallie switched to on campus as well so I hung out with her in the mornings, during 1st period, and lunch.

   I tutor Aden on Mondays and Wednesdays since we have the same math class. We’re already pretty close, but I feel that we got closer than we were in March. On April 8th, I was able to see my other friends that I haven’t seen since March, so that was a highlight of my day.

   Even though I haven’t been with my friends in person for a while now, I found that my friendships with them have only gotten stronger. My sister has told me that you don’t need to talk to your friends every day for them to be considered friends, and it took me a while to realize that, but I completely agree. Now, I can easily text my friends and pick up where we left off.