Myles, 12th grader

At one point, I went without the internet for a whole month. Our family's Wi-Fi connection suddenly went out, so then I had to use the program that our school has where they provide hotspots for students who don't have internet at home. I had no idea about this before, but apparently, some of my classmates had been using them for a while; I was not aware they existed before this. 

At first, I was relieved to have some form of internet access, even if it wasn't the best. But then I realized that the hotspot didn't work great. It was slow and often disconnected, which made it difficult to get anything done. Plus, the school only allowed us to use it for homework and research purposes, so I couldn't even use it to watch videos or browse social media.

It was especially frustrating since COVID had already made everything so isolating. It felt like 60% of the student body had disappeared, and there were no repercussions for no one showing up to online classes and stuff. 

* Names have been changed to protect the student’s identity