By Lucas ’23
As COVID numbers start to go down and vaccines are distributed, many students are jonesing to get back to normal, in-person school. This is a sentiment shared by many teachers, parents, and administrators at HW. Consequently, the school has tried to bring back some activities on campus in an attempt to return to business as usual, including athletics at both campuses.
One type of event that I’ve really enjoyed personally are the in-person social activities that have been organized at the Upper School. We had a few of these in the fall, but as it became more dangerous during the holiday season, the school had to stop allowing them on campus. There’s recently been a resurgence of in-person events in the past couple of weeks, though, which has been really exciting.
Usually these events are organized by Prefect Council, who gives us all the details we need. We’re required to fill out a health survey the day of and present our results to organizers when we get there before being checked in. We all were also required to wear KN95 masks for the duration of the meet-up, which they provide if you don’t have one.
At all of these events I’ve been to, we’ve gotten some sort of food and drinks, and most of the event is spent in big circles spread out on the field. I think that maybe if this was a normal year, there would be specific activities planned for us, but I feel like in this situation it’s probably better that we’re just free to chat and do whatever. There have also been some other on-campus activities more recently, including a session this past Saturday hosted by the school’s Peer Support program.
I think the school is making a persistent effort to start the transition back to regular life this year, even if we probably won’t be able to fully go back yet. These events (along with the shorter moments we get on campus these days, like picking up yearbooks and class materials) also give us a sense of what it will be like when we do return, everything in accordance with the plan outlined on the HW website. In general, I’ve appreciated the activities that have been available so far and am looking forward to coming back soon.
