How has your virtual school status affected your work? Positively, Negatively, or a mixture of both? My personal virtual schoolwork status has not been as affecting as I thought it would be. I thought it would feel like a huge change, but after the long months of quarantine, I am fairly used to it. The positive side of virtual school is that it gives you a more flexible schedule with the self-paced assignments. The negative side of the flexibility is that it is very hard to get encouraged. It is much easier for me to get motivated while being at actual school, instead of the comfort of my own home. Overall, it is a big mixture of pros and cons, but it is not as dreadful as others make it out to be. 

How has your virtual school status affected you socially and emotionally? Socially, it has been hard for me to be away from my friends and favorite teachers for so long. Although I can text or call them from my phone, I much prefer to see everyone in person. Emotionally, my quiet house gets lonely at times. Sometimes it makes me miss my friends, family and school activities very badly, but I then remember that everything will be back to normal soon (hopefully). I try to make the best out of my situation. 

Describe the process of attending band class virtually. Attending band class virtually is definitely the most challenging part of doing online school. I painfully miss being able to play with the rest of my classmates in person. However, my band directors have done their best to make my virtual process as realistic and smooth as possible. I log onto a Teams meeting every day at 8:15 (which is normal band class time). There will be days where everyone does their individual practicing while muted on Teams, but there are also days where we all look at the same warmups and play together. 

How would you change the virtual band process, or would you change it at all? If I had the choice to change the process or keep it the way it is, I believe I would choose to keep it. Although the situations are not ideal, they are definitely better than nothing at all. 

 What advice would you give to a person that wishes to attend band virtually? If I were to give someone advice, I would say to not give up hope. During these times, it can be extremely hard to keep going, or find any motivation to do anything at all. In my personal experience, it is better to keep up your hope and faith and make the best out of a bad experience. Things would be a lot worse if I just gave up, instead of trying hard to keep a positive attitude.