This Year's Tea

This year's "tea"... get it? Anyway, this year was so whacked out and weird. Honestly, nothing could be compared to it. But at least I can pull the ole "I survived a pandemic" on the future youth of America.

As I write this I am sipping a white hot chocolate from Starbucks. So, here is a super quick review to keep this post on-brand:

1. Taste- Very much yummy. 8/10

2. Price- $4.50 for venti which is not super great, but it is Starbucks after all. 6/10

3. Quality- Yum, nice, I like it. 8/10

4. Aesthetic- Uh it's just a white cup so 5/10.

5. Final- 6.75/10

Anyway, as I said, this year was weird. It wasn't bad, though. Here are some of my pros and cons of why this year was the way it was.

Pros:

* A/B days let me sleep in and work more

* A lot less stressful than a normal school year

* Deadlines were a lot more forgiving

* Smaller class sizes made class more attentive

Cons:

* A/B schedule made me lazy

* Catch up due to my laziness was not fun

* Didn’t see half of my class

All in all, the year was pretty decent. I don't think I could say it was better or worse than other years because it was nothing like other years. Almost every aspect of life was different. At this point, I don't know if I'll be able to assimilate back into normal society. For example, even though I'm fully vaccinated, I still refuse to walk into a public place without a mask. I just feel weird without one.

My expectations for myself have also changed. As many people know me, I am a perfectionist and I always have been. But, I let myself come back down to Earth this year. I think I'm okay with getting a B in my Spanish class, and as most of my teachers now know, I am perfectly fine with turning my assignments in late. I don't think I am 'letting myself go' or anything like that, but I do think I am allowing myself to be a normal student for once. Not everyone is perfect, and this pandemic exposed that.

I think my favorite part of this year was how everyone grew into themselves. I think everyone has become more authentic because we have all realized that we are all going through it together. Though our situations can be completely different, everyone has their struggles, therefore we can't judge.

This year was a year of growth and trust. Trusting that we would all do our part to keep each other safe and trusting that we would see this pandemic through to the end. Pandemia isn't great, but some of its effects were actually good.