The life of a lower sixth student during lockdown

For many of us around the world, lockdown has been an extremely tough part of our lives and definitely a low part of 2020. However, now companies are starting to open and we can start to see a light at the end of this Covid-19 tunnel, I thought I would reflect on my time as a Year 12 student before I dive headfirst into being a Year 13 student. Spoiler alert, it was definitely a different experience and a lot of the time very stressful.

So, a little introduction to the A Level subjects that I decided to take, these were Music, Fine Art and English Literature. At the moment, I want to study Music and English at University. Sixth Form was always going to be something that I strived for and throughout the summer of Year 11, I was extremely excited to focus on the three subjects that I enjoyed. Previous Sixth Formers had told me that it will be some of the most stressful years of my life and yes it was, however, I also hadn’t anticipated Covid-19 being added into the equation.

“My biggest fear was that I was going to completely fail my A-Levels and then my career path would just end.”

When I first heard about schools shutting down, a part of me was excited but another part was stressing out a lot. I was excited, suddenly the whole of the UK was going into a new way of life that no one had ever gone into before and I knew from that moment that we were going to go into a new type of ‘normal’ – this part of me loves a challenge. Being told that schools were closed was stressful especially as we weren’t allowed to meet friends. My biggest fear was that I was going to completely fail my A-Levels and then my career path would just end. I also suffer with anxiety so I knew that was another part of my life that I would have to deal with.

To start off with, homeschooling and working from home was hard for everyone in my household. However, when my family and I got into the new routine of working together in the same environment, it wasn’t as bad as I first thought. University open days were also a new experience since we could not go and visit the university in person and, I am currently trying to write my UCAS personal statement during lockdown. This is certainly hard when we are only using ‘PowerPoints’ and ‘Word’ documents that our teachers have provided us with. I am also thankful for the fact that we have video calling such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams as this has become a lifesaver for our online learning. But at the same time, I am extremely grateful for the academic support that I have had during lockdown.

“But coming out of lockdown has changed me,”

The country is only just starting to go back to our new ‘normal’ and looking back on lockdown, as a whole, it was one of the most beneficial periods of my life. I must admit, it was also one of the hardest periods of my life and I would do anything for my life to go back to how it used to be. But coming out of lockdown has changed me (cliché, I know) because it has made me realise that I am stronger than my anxiety and that I take so many things for granted, such as having food on my plate. I also realised that my grades so far for A-Levels are far from failing, even after a change of routine for school. There have been many low points in lockdown, and I know that many other people in the world would have been feeling the same way too. Covid-19 has made me a stronger person and I am grateful for it.

Jodie Baldwin

Image courtesy of  Nick Morrison on Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.