Coming back to campus was accompanied with a rush of emotions. Most of them are gleefully cheerful, as I am finally able to see my friends and classmates face to face, without staring at a screen for hours on end. While it is frustrating at times to wear masks for several hours straight or to eat lunch in separate spaces, these frustrations come with a high reward. I continuously find myself sitting in the “bubbles,” the allotted Fourth Form study space, doing homework and talking with friends (sometimes a little too much of the latter, but in difficult times it is necessary to indulge ourselves). When I think back to just a few weeks ago, all I wanted was to be back on campus, and now here I am, home again.
It is difficult to put into words the allure of the Groton campus and its community. There is something about being back that puts a smile on my face, even when I am up late trying to finish chemistry problem sets and world history research papers. Sometimes I wonder if they are putting something into our food or maybe even diffusing special essential oils at night, because this school has held my heart hostage from the very first day that I set foot on campus for soccer preseason of my Third Form year. I am so unbelievably grateful to be back and, despite the effects of the pandemic outside campus, I finally feel a sense of security and homeyness that had been lacking since we left in November.