Found Journal from 2048

The following texts are entries from a recovered file of a grade 10 student's journal spanning from September 2048 to June 2049.

Recovered file

Sept 1, 2048

Tomorrow is the first day of grade 10. Kinda nervous…JUST KIDDING! It’s fully online, so I don't have to worry about who I’m going to sit with in class or at lunch, or my outfit, or whatever! Mom is worried for me because she had experienced "the lonely mess that is online school" during the 2020 pandemic and thinks I’m gonna lose it or something. She told me I should keep a journal to express my thoughts and feelings. She gave me this really pretty blue and gold notebook, and I appreciate the gesture, but writing by hand tires me out, so I’m just gonna type on a computer like a normal person from this day and age. The notebook looks great on my nightstand though.

Anyways… first day of online classes. When we first found out that our school was shutting down, I was pretty surprised. I was under the impression that only schools in the areas with A LOT of homelessness would get shut down, but I guess everywhere’s really bad right now. Honestly, I’m okay with the change. The whole housing crisis here is really scary and its kind of comforting to know that if things don't go well down the road for me or my family, we won't have to live in the literal streets. And, honestly, online school might not be so bad. I normally have to wake up at 7 to take the bus to my school, and there are some people in my grade that I CAN’T STAND. I’m not gonna miss hanging out in the hallways with them. I heard that at least five people from my grade are transferring to private school next year. They must have enrolled MONTHS ago because now all private schools are at capacity for next year… It must be nice being RICH.

Oct 23, 2048

Sorry Journal God, I’ve been too lazy to write. Online school is mediocre as hell. Yeah there's the pro of being able to wake up at 8:50 every morning, and not having to worry about where I’m sitting at lunch and stuff, but it is maybe the most boring thing I have ever experienced in my life. Sometimes, when I’m sitting in history class, I get so tired that my head starts feeling so heavy and I worry I might fall asleep on camera. It's just so boring to sit there while Mr. Dern goes on about trench foot. And I’m someone that LIKES history. I swear everyone else in that class is either doing other assignments or messaging friends. In fact, the other day a kid just left his chair for the whole period and Dern didn't notice because he never looks at the video call page during the lesson. Even if he did, there are like 40 people in the class, so our faces must be super small.

There are a couple classes that are still good though, like drama and science. Drama’s funny because we use virtual backgrounds and we just film videos like normal. Our science teacher, is amazing. She has so much energy and makes us participate in her lessons (in a good way!). She almost makes me like science. All my other classes are… mid. Definitely worse than in person, but also not by thaaaat much. I get really bored, though, and usually end up opening my phone and scrolling through silly videos. I can’t help it!!

Dec 12, 2048

Two more weeks until winter break!! Online school has been whatever. Our French teachers quit, so until they find a new one, we’ll get a free period. We’ll have to do our projects after the break and I really hope we don't have group work. I don’t really have any close friends in the school and I’m scared that it’ll be awkward. I’m stoked for the winter break though. You will not catch me in front of this God forsaken computer!! (Though you will certainly catch me on my phone). I have big plans for this winter break. Alex, my one-year-older-bestie, and I are gonna hang out most days and we made a little bucket list for the break! We’re gonna go skating, decorate gingerbread cookies, go window shopping, have a movie night, repaint my bedroom a classy shade of eggshell, and do a whole bunch of sitting around. Yay!!!

Jan 2, 2049

New school year, new me!!! I’ve decided it's time to get closer with some people in my grade. Preferably Nick or Tina. We did a lot of group work together last year and they aren't so bad. Honestly, this whole thing is because Alex told me last week that her family is moving to some small town in Saskatchewan next month. She said she’ll miss me and her other friends, but thinks she's really lucky that her parents were able to find work outside of the city. I’m happy for her prosperous future and all, but I will literally be friendless when she leaves, if I don’t do something STAT. I just don’t love putting myself out there and it feels even harder now that everythings done on group chats. I wish I could just like… stand next to someone and get invited to hang out with them that way.

Jan 8th, 2049

We got assigned our final projects for the semester. Exams are basically dead because all our teachers think we’re just gonna cheat through them. Honestly… real. I got put in a group with Nick AND Tina for our English project. We have to film a video on some play I didn’t read, but I WILL!! Can't let the group down!

Jan 12th, 2049

I read the play during history class (Sorry Mr. Dern!) That class has been EXTRA boring since we moved online, so I just turned the volume down and did some reading. OK I read the first half and then I had Chat GPT explain the rest of the play to me… I’m in a time crunch! We’re going to film our video at Tina’s house over the weekend. I’m gonna pick my outfit now hehehe.

Jan 18th, 2049

We filmed the video at Tina’s house. It went pretty well! We got everything done and Nick volunteered to edit all of it which was nice of him. They mentioned that a few of the people in our class are going skating next weekend and they invited me. They said they would add me to the group chat. Progress!!

Jan 26th, 2049

Ok so maybe not progress because I still have not been added to the group chat… I messaged Nick and he said the rest of the group thought it might be weird. I didn’t know what to say to that so I just liked his message.

Feb 6, 2049

I’m kinda over this semester. Our English teacher went on leave, we still don’t have a French teacher, and I’m not failing math, but I'm pretty darn close! I’ve never gotten lower than a 70 in a class before, so I’m bummed out. It's just so hard to focus. Class is also sooo boring, so I just en up scrolling through short vids for most of it. The other day, I just left my camera on in history class (Sry again Mr. Dern) and went on a walk for half an hour. I was back before the end of the class, so no one noticed (Except Tina, she messaged me). I know it's bad to skip class, but it was a #mentalhealthbreak.

Feb 14, 2049

Happy Valentine’s Day… TO NO ONE. I miss elementary school when we used to hand out valentines. Now I just get handed out F’s haha  :(

Tina DMed me and asked me to sign a petition against the unfair distribution of practice spaces for sports teams in the Toronto board. Our school doesn't rank very high in athletics, so we got allocated zero practice spaces and students are really upset. And I'm one of those students so you know I signed it! I was looking forward to trying out for the soccer team in April, but it sounds like it's gonna be canceled along with everything else. I’m pretty sure everybody will sign it (except for the reaaally good schools that get all the practice space), but I don’t know if it will bring any change.

March 26, 2049

Okay so apparently they’re putting together a "buddy" learning system to encourage interaction between students. My brother says they're scared we’re all gonna become "anti-social idiots". His comments don't usually phase me, but this one sort of did. I would hate to seem more weird than I already feel at the moment! So for this whole "buddy" system, you can pair up with a student and attend online school from each other's house. People have already been doing it, so it's not a crazy idea. The only difference is that, now, the school is highly encouraging it. They're letting students pick their buddies and then the leftovers get grouped up by the teachers. Let's go team leftovers, I guess.

March 30, 2049

The petition worked! It got thousands of signatures and even some media coverage. It's already pretty late in the year though, so the board isn’t going to change the way practice spaces are distributed until September. Sounds like some nonsense to me. My brother says that it's a conspiracy and there's probably someone on the board that will benefit more if the Toronto teams place provincially. I don’t know if high school sports are that serious, but regardless of whether someones personally benefiting, I’m personally losing! Sad.

Also, Tina asked me to be her buddy. I think she’s beefing with Nick and them… Great for me though!

April 26, 2048

All hail the buddy system!! I don’t want to speak too soon, but I’ve been going over to Tina’s house for our classes and we’ve hit it off! We’re lucky we live in the same area. Some students have to commute a pretty long way to study with their friends, but I guess it's worth it. Some people are complaining online that the buddy system is inequitable because not all students can go to other people's houses or host. There are also kids like Nathan, whocan’t seem to hold buddy because they’re a little weird. It’s not like the school can FORCE students to go to other students’ homes, so this whole thing definitely isn’t perfect. I don’t know how the school is going to deal with that, but I PERSONALLY prefer learning this way. I like that there's someone to talk to between classes, I’m less likely to fall asleep in class when there’s someone next to me, and group work is less dull. Also, I’m finally real friends with someone in my grade. I don't see why we should learn alone… WE’RE NOT IN A GLOBAL PANDEMIC

June 24th, 2048

Been away. I locked in for school when I realized the only thing worse than online school is online SUMMER school. Ms Lao reminded us that in April, since a third of the class was failing History. I’m okay with History, but I fear the summer school thing applies to subjects like math too…

Spring finals definitely felt easier than the winter ones. I think its partially because I studied harder for them and partially because school is trying to boost everyone's grades, by giving us some wins. Also Tina and I are besties now and we’ve made more friends in our year. We probably won't be class buddies for school next year because there is no way I'm taking math or physics, but we’ll hang out after class (and this summer)! This year kind of felt like a blip, like it happened by accident, and honestly I don’t remember what I did for half of it. I think next year will be slightly better, but I’m not getting my hopes up, especially since everyone says that school gets harder in grade 11 and 12. I’m just hoping I can push through it, get highschool over with, and get into university. I’m really scared I won't get into university though since I’m competing with people that got actual educations like damn private school kids and students from outside the city. BUT I DON’T WANT TO THINK ABOUT THAT RIGHT NOW SO I’M NOT GOING TO.