Just short of a year ago, my classmates and I were furiously studying, with six out of ten examinations behind us, and vacations right around the corner. The newspapers were filled with reports of the COVID pandemic. Yet, tucked away in a boarding school in the hills of Andhra Pradesh, we didn’t expect anything to affect our examinations.

Within a few days, our exams had been postponed indefinitely or even cancelled, and students were whisked away to their homes. From looking forward to putting away our books after the exams, we had gone to sitting at home, unsure whether we would even be able to complete tenth grade.

We went from taking sneaky naps behind a pile of books, to just turning our videos off. We went from using being ill as an excuse to bunk classes, to just using the leave meeting button. The year that has passed seemed like it stretched forever, but it also passed by in a flash.

For kids that spent majority of their year at boarding school, without gadgets, we learned to adapt quite quickly. Learning from the rest of the world, we had virtual birthday celebrations and online study sessions. We even managed to do an online Secret Santa.

Recently, I bumped into a friend from another school. While our schools could not be more different, soon, we were talking about upcoming exams, online school, and our steadily growing assignment pile. No matter what class they are in or where they study, every student has had the same experience. The conversation immediately picks up – everyone cribs about how they barely learned anything in class, laughs about convenient network issues, and protests against offline exams. In times when we are more isolated than ever before, school has once again connected all of us.