Before the year of 2020, I was more or less an average student who maintained good grades throughout each school year. However, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit in early 2020 our entire schooling system began to shift into something we had not experienced before.

     Starting a new school year was difficult for many students, especially those who chose, or were required to, learn virtually. With a variety of mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety skyrocketing, students who normally made higher A and B grades were failing one or more classes. I can tell from personal experience that it was hard to do simple things like getting out of bed or brushing my teeth. Not to mention the constant stress from family and friends to gain motivation. I had to deal with school which at this point I was teaching myself. I got so behind that I was failing every single one of my classes and I was not even sure if i could get to a place in which I was caught up.

     I say all this about my struggles, but there are plenty of people who had way worse experiences than I did. I do this for myself and for any other student out there that had their whole life flipped upside down this past year. We had to teach ourselves material that we had never even heard of before, and were expected to do a multitude of assignments following the "lesson." There comes a point when the work load is just too much and students cave in under stress.

     So here I propose that colleges who look at student's records, disregard the educational year of 2020-2021 for students who performed poorly. The expectations were far too high, and we should not be held accountable for a situation that we could not control. Thank you.