Many students of Morton East High School have been given opportunities due to this pandemic — from as simple as getting closer to family and getting fit to getting a new job or even starting up their own small business.

According to the writers of Scientific American, a study was done by scientists showing that with enough downtime the brain of a human becomes more creative. Since the majority of students at Morton East are attending virtually that leaves them with a lot of time on their hands, enough time to then think. This may have lead to the opportunities that they were given since pre-pandemic we were all in class always worrying about things:  if it wasn’t about class, it was being afraid you didn’t look good enough for others. There was always just something going on in our heads, and now most of those things we don’t even think about since we’re at the comfort of our own homes. During these tuff times, we have to sometimes look on the bright side of things. So I surveyed 60 student’s from Morton East asking, “Has this pandemic opened any new opportunities for you?” Around 88% of them answered, “yes.”

“This pandemic has given me the chance of being able to obtain a new job with the flexibility of remote learning. If the pandemic would’ve never occurred, I would never have sought the opportunity of a job. However, for financial stability in these rough times, I was able to get a job in order to support myself and my family. Despite financial hardships, I thoroughly enjoy my job as it has given me a chance to learn new skills such as customer service as well as meeting new coworkers that I now consider close friends. This pandemic gave me a chance to seek new opportunities that I probably would’ve disregarded pre-pandemic due to the rushed lifestyle I lived before the pandemic,” senior student Diana Solis said.

Some students are finding time to improve themselves.

“I had the opportunity to work and meet lots of people through social media and even find some new hobbies in jewelry making and meditation and listening to a podcast. I don’t think that without the pandemic I would have had these opportunities, at least not for a couple more years. It forced me to get out of my shell and reach out to people and opportunities by myself. It also gave me stress that I had to find new ways to de-stress since I couldn’t go to the gym or hang out with friends which are usually my go ways to de-stress,” senior Flor Quiroz had to say.

Another fellow student had the following to say.

“An opportunity this pandemic has abled me to take part in is starting my own small business. Like many other people around here, we were given a lot of free time since most things are closed due to this virus, so I wanted to take advantage of that time. Many people from our school started to open up their own small business so I started my own jewelry company. If the pandemic never occurred I would have never thought I’d be selling jewelry to other locals and I’m very thankful for it. Not only am I making some money, but I found a new thing to keep me busy,” junior Alexa Narvoa said.

A peer of hers had the following to add.

“This pandemic opened the new opportunity of leaving my old job I was miserable at and get a new job I enjoy being at now. I believe that without this pandemic I would’ve never had the opportunity to do so because my old job wasn’t an essential job; it was closed down for several months leading to the downfall of bankruptcy which led to it shutting down. I was left without a job but found a new one — thanks to the high need of employees during this time and to my best friend that referred me. It made our friendship stronger and I no longer dread going to work,” senior Student Briana Maciel had to say.

One of her peers had to say the following,

“I was able to improve myself as an individual for one but I was also able to invest into myself. All these long days have given me time to not only better myself mentally but also physically, I now have time to exercise every day without having to stress about it. I’m not very confident with my physique and plan to keep pushing. Without this pandemic occurring I wouldn’t think I’d be this confident with myself that being because pre-pandemic days went by so quickly since I would also be busy with errands and school,” senior Student Adrian Salamanca Lopez said.