Freshman Miguel Fajardo is one out of the small group of people learning inside the building of Harrisonburg High School. Most students are doing at home learning, but here at Harrisonburg the students that are allowed in the building to learn are kids who do not speak much, like Fajardo and the special education students. Fajardo has noticed differences in school before the pandemic and after.

 “It has been fun but different. I don’t have [as] many friends as I did, you know,” Fajardo said. 

Since COVID-19, school schedules changed drastically. Now that most students are online with similar schedules. However, Fajardo has a different schedule than online students. “I have 4 classes but only 3 teachers. I have only around 10 people in my class,” Fajardo said. 

When Fajardo is around people, he always wears his mask, and they practice social distancing during school at all times.

“We do social distancing because the desks are far apart, and I am not as close to people as much,” Fajardo said. 

Miguel is not a man of many words, but he loves learning a new language in English class.

 “My favorite class is English because it helps me get better at speaking it since I don’t know how to [speak English], and I like the teacher ,” Fajardo said. 

Fajardo is excited for school and has set many goals for himself. He plays many sports including basketball and baseball, however, he considers baseball as his main sport after he played JV baseball in eighth grade and wants to continue playing by pitching on the varsity team. 

“I feel like the school year is going well. I want to get good grades like straight A’s and make the varsity baseball [team] to pitch,” Fajardo said.