During what WAS my mundane winter break, I received a phone call from my childhood friend, Sakurako. We’ve known each other for quite some time. Like, our first meetup was when she came out of the womb. Was that TMI? Well, anywho… She lives in Japan, and I am stuck in a less cool version of her idea about America. So, the day after Christmas, I got that phone call from Sakurako saying that her friend, Kanon, was hosting an ‘International Zoom Party’. I was instructed to bring food from my country, to which I chose a day old hamburger from McDonald’s. Classic American meal. This Zoom call ended up being a small group of 6 that ended up greatly changing my perspective about COVID and education. To give context, there was Sakura and Kanon, two female students from a private high school in Japan; Laura, a senior, who lives in San Francisco; Yoga (his full name is Pranayoga) a sophomore from Indonesia; and Jiabao, a female college student in China. Everybody spoke English as a first or second language, with the exception of Yoga since he also studied Japanese in hopes of going to college there one day. Kanon, who arranged this meeting, had a set array of questions for us and our experiences with COVID. Before our interview started, all of us shared a brief presentation of our lives with pictures of our hobbies, school life, friends, etc. First Question: What is your school like? Immediately, somebody asked if we go to gender-separated schools. All but Laura and I were split up, boys and girls. Jiabao, who was really curious about American life, asked how Laura and I got the opportunity to be in these ‘extra’ classes. These ‘extra’ classes she was referring to were electives. It was so fascinating to the group that American students got the opportunity to choose a ‘fun class’ (in Yoga’s words) to take. Jiabao shared her experience that in her providence of China, students were required to take this one test that would pretty much determine their life after high school. She said that successful students will continue pursuing their career of choice, while others would dwindle on what their life would like next, all because of one, singular test. Meanwhile, Sakura and Kanon expressed how school was somewhat relaxed, but what really took up all their time was a paid, after-school tutoring course. Mind you, they already pay a fortune just for the private school alone. I shared about how school is somewhat hard, but colleges are more interested in people’s extracurriculars + academics, rather than just solely test grades. Second Question: What is your life like during COVID? I was super fascinated by Jiabao and her experience in China because she was attending school as normal, and COVID was monitored in a high-tech way that made me sorta jealous. Aside from the tracking and facial recognition that Americans have a negative view on, most of what Jiabao said was kinda cool. Jiabao explained how COVID is almost 100% tracked through their phones, often through the app called WeChat. While it is highly controversial, it does serve a vital purpose of protecting people from potential COVID risks. I got kinda fussy about how some Americans were still gathering in large groups, and yes, still partying. Jiabao and Yoga both said something on the lines of “Isn’t that scary? Knowing that somebody could potentially have COVID but you still risk your entire life just to go out?” Mind you, this interview took place before January 6th… Also, I wanted to note that I just recently got a message from Kanon, Sakura, and Jiabao about what was going on in Capitol Hill. They were all very sweet by sending me reassuring messages of hope and safety within my family and friends. Last Question: What is or were your hopes for the future? This one kinda hit all of us hard. Yoga, as I mentioned earlier, has his heart set out on coming to Japan one day. He’s actually more fluent in Japanese than I thought, which he credits to countless hours of anime. Kanon is mostly set on graduating and in the meantime, planning to host more international Zoom parties. Laura says she is worried about not being able to take SATs and enjoying her last year in high school. But, Laura was still optimistic and said she is happy with the people in her life and appreciates her teachers more than anything. Jiabao said if it wasn’t for COVID, she would have traveled to America and sightsee places she saw on TV. For Sakura, well, ever since we were kids, she always said she wants to go to college in the US. She desires to come visit Crescent Valley and live at least a week’s worth of life as an American high-schooler. Sakura mentioned how she and I always aspired to one day recreate all the pictures our moms took when they were our age… That definitely hurt to hear, since our chances of seeing each other again in person seem slim. I think the most valuable lesson I learned was although COVID blocked all of our passions in life, it has opened a new wave of opportunities to connect with one another. Although this pandemic, let alone the past year has sucked, I would have never gotten to speak with some of these people, had we not all shared the commonality of being stuck at home. Now, I can officially say I had a pretty cool winter break experience like no other. - Maria Fuller If you want to write for the Crescent Crier, we would love to see you at one of our virtual meetings, which are every Wednesday at 1:30pm! To come to a meeting, fill out this form: https://forms.gle/TrQ5PqFcDqeE2yiB9, and we’ll send you a link ASAP. 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