Year 10 were asked to write a letter to themselves, describing how they have felt over the last three months.

Camry-Rose

Faith P

When I first realised that schools were going to be closed due to the corona virus outbreak I was thrilled and over joyed as it would mean no school for a long period of time and now that is no longer the case. After a week or so, my mum told me that our holiday to Spain had been cancelled due to the covid 19 outbreak and this made me upset and quite furious at the time as I did not understand how serious and life-threatening the whole situation actually was.

For the first two weeks of lockdown I spent in my bedroom due to the fact of I had some symptoms that the government had said to be aware of and for a long time I was scared especially as my breathing wasn’t in a normal state, also I wasn’t feeling great. As lockdown continued I was trying to find things to fill my day with as lockdown was becoming very hard to endure.

 I found myself in a position where I came to actually miss school and my friends and also even being able to eat at my favourite restaurants and even go shopping. Another thing that was questionable, was I had to use things that were already in the house for mother’s day as I had only had time to buy a card so far and I wasn’t allowed to go to any shops so I had to deal with what I had. Luckily my mum said it was fine and that she was happy with just spending time with me instead.

In lockdown I tried to do new things such as baking, going for walks on the fields behind my house and I even started painting as beforehand I began to become very lazy and stressed. My routine was ruined and everything had been shut around me including the gym so I couldn’t do the normal exercise I wanted to do so I decided to do it at home instead. I found as I went through the quarantine that each day was very repetitive and almost nothing new was happening which increased the boredom. Through the whole experience however, there were things that I did enjoy which included when the food order came and I got all my favourite foods or when I spend a long amount of time watching films or series on Netflix or even getting to finish decorating my bedroom, as if it was a normal day I would not have the time to do this so I took this to my advantage.

I learnt that this had actually given me time to step back from my busy and stressful life and actually appreciate the things that in a normal time I would have taken advantage of and wouldn’t have given a second thought.

 Approaching the second month of lockdown, it was my nephews sixth birthday so i face Timed him on messenger and wished him a happy birthday, it surprised me and also gave me relief when I saw that he was actually having a good time at home instead of having a birthday party at laser quest, seeing him on FaceTime almost brought me to tears as I just wanted to go through the screen and give him a huge hug. Even people in my family who I wouldn’t normally speak to I talked to over the phone and the majority of them asked similar questions such as “how are you “and “what have you been up to “and it was nice to hear their voices at such a weird and confusing time in everybody’s lives. I definitely miss my brother, my dad, my cousins and my grandparents and I felt so useless as there was nothing I could do to see them.

One thing I know for sure is I cannot wait to have my own space back and my own privacy and not be stuck in a house with my parents on my back constantly. I felt extremely sorry for the people who live in small combined spaces with children unable to go out to an open space or even have a garden in the summer heat. Over the weeks instead of going out to buy clothes I ordered them online instead and got bundles of things and to be honest I don’t regret buying a single thing but now I have to buy some new drawers to put everything in which is the downside to it. Even though this saved time I cannot deny that I miss going shopping in Trafford centre and eating warm chocolate, gooey cookie dough with more melted chocolate over the edge oozing out – it’s like having diabetes on a plate but it is worth every mouthful. Hopefully when the whole thing is finished I will be able to go out again to see my friends and have picnics with them, or even go on a white sandy beach which I’m still not over, instead I have the comfort of the lovely British weather and the grass in my garden.

When I’m out, I will go to the cinema, watch the film, enjoy the amazing smell of popcorn surrounding the whole building and get my favorite tango ice blast drink. Then when the film has come to an end I will go to kfc and get some spicy hot wings with a coca cola –  the end to a stressful period of my life.

In lockdown it had actually given me more time to focus on my future and what I want to accomplish, I want to get a grade 5 in maths and English and also at least a grade 4 in three other subjects which will give me my high school diploma and then after school which i have decided to become an air hostess, go to either sixth form at saint christaphors or Burnley college for at least 4 years and have a part time job , take some foreign languages tests online and make sure I have all of the necessary skills to get the job that I really want as I enjoy being kind to people and helping people. And it’s made me realise that life is too precious to not enjoy it and live it to its fullest and I want to see more of the world rather now than later.

Hannah C

Dear myself,
A lot has happened in the world and around you recently which will be remembered throughout history. When school first closed i remember you were very happy but you also had a lot of thoughts in the back of your mind about what could happen and what is happening, will it affect your future or effect yourself when it all happened? At the beginning of school being closed I enjoyed it and my mindset was concentrated on still doing all of my work and trying to do as best as I can depending on the circumstances but the longer it went on I realised that i missed reality and i really didn’t enjoy being at home and being with myself and my own company for such a long period of time, I took into advantage that I could go out and see my friends wherever I wanted for however long and no matter how long i complained about going to school and doing all the work i know deep down that I enjoyed it and that I did look forward to seeing my friends every single day because they are what made me happy. The perks of lockdown have been I have grown stronger bonds with my friends because we are all in the same boat so we all have things in common and i started to take things like texting and face timing my friends as a thing i became really grateful for during lockdown when we couldn’t see each other for a very long time. During lockdown there were days when i didn’t feel like doing any work or even getting out of bed because I felt very low because i had no friends around me to cheer me up when I needed it, my friends is something that i took into advantage, so that’s something that I realised during lockdown that my friends are people that are so close to my heart and they make me so happy.

I think life after lockdown and the corona virus will never be the same, people will still always be paranoid about going out and visiting places incase of high risk of catching the disease, but I also think that I will see my friends a lot more often than I did before school closed. I do want to try harder in school because I have missed out on a lot of work since school and i started doubting whether i would do well on my GCSE’s and whether I would get my predicted scores or lower, I just want to start taking school a lot more seriously. I’m going to spend a lot of time with my friends and people who i keep closest to my heart. For my future i want to just travel and have a successful future and not worry about anything because I feel like I’m experiencing the worst right now and I’m getting through it as well as I possibly can. I think that the society’s future will be changed for a very long time and it won’t go back to normal as soon as things return to semi normal and people will still take everything into precaution and be extremely careful.

From your past self.

Task:
Write a story that includes lots of songs.

Once there was a boy called Billie Jean, he was a nosey boy, always getting into other people’s business. He had a friend called Eileen who he went everywhere with.
One day he said, “come on Eileen, let’s go see what they are all up to over there.”
Eileen said, “no it’s okay, you go.”
Billie said, “oh don’t you want to see?“ 

So, feeling under pressure she decided to follow Billie Jean.

When they arrived where all the people were stood around, the sight was so horrible she thought it would take her breath away. Billie started to push past people, Eileen sighed to herself and said, “here I go again”.

Once Billie got to the front he grabbed Eileen’s hand and pulled her through the crowd mumbling, “I need you tonight.” As Eileen got to the front, she gasped and three older boys looked at them and told them to beat it!

As they walked away, Billie looked at Eileen and said with a heavy heart “another one bites the dust.”  Eileen looked at him with tears rolling down her cheeks. Billie looked at her and said “don’t cry.”  As they walked away in silence it started to rain. She heard Billie mumble, “typical November rain…”

They then reached the other side of the path. Eileen thought to herself, don’t look back in anger. They continued to walk up the very steep flights of stairs into the college building. They made their way to the library and found an empty table to sit at. After they sat there for a while in silence Billie started to ask questions out loud such as “who was dead? Who did it? Why did they do it?” Then she saw Roxanne walking over and she gave a sigh. Roxanne sat on one of the other chairs and said “did you hear, someone killed Alfie?” It’s the end of the road. Eileen asked if she was okay because she looked like a zombie. Billie looked at me and said, “I think she’s crazy in love.” Roxanne looked at me and said, “thought I had a good poker face!”

We all sat there in silence for an hour. Billie broke the silence by saying “did you lose yourself in your thoughts?” Nobody knew what to do next but we knew one thing, there definitely was a serial killer on campus and we all needed to be stronger and stick together.