In the midst of these unprecedented times, members of the Morristown-Beard community have found ways to find light during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Beginning in March of 2020, New Jersey residents were called to quarantine in their homes, eliminating in-person school. While classes were now virtual, athletics, social gatherings, and other activities were cancelled completely. The school hallways were no longer filled with joyous conversations, and Founders Hall would no longer host unity-binding All School Meetings. The campus became a cluster of mostly empty buildings as students and teachers adjusted to this new style of learning. 

For many students it felt like their lives had been put on hold. They felt that their day to day happiness and little things to look forward to were taken away. Life would never be quite the same. This sentiment was also true for many teachers of the community, as they could no longer engage with their students as much as before. 

As a result of the pandemic, MBS never got to reopen for the 2019-2020 academic year, and the COVID restrictions put in place by Governor Phil Murphy lasted throughout the entire summer. This made a bad situation even worse for the mental health of the students. There would no longer be opportunities to travel or see their friends in person. Although quarantine presented the same circumstances as it did in the spring, what changed is that the fact students would no longer have classes or work to occupy themselves with in the summer months. In a non-pandemic world, this would be seen as great news, but with nowhere to go it just simply was not the same.

In a series of virtual interviews, students shared their experiences with quarantine and how they managed to keep themselves busy. 

Camille Ferell ‘22 said that she decided to take on baking and learned how to make snickerdoodles. Other students shared that they spent most of their time watching different television series, such as Grey’s Anatomy and Glee, on various streaming services. 

As the summer months came to an end, the news was revealed that MBS would be reopening for in-person learning in September. For some, this came as a surprise, and for many it was what they were hoping for all summer. The School would open on the ninth of September, and continue to remain open unless a positive coronavirus case was reported. The school was able to keep its doors open for almost a month until the virus took that away. Students were sent home again to quarantine for a week, while others received “close contact” emails which required them to stay home for an extra week before returning to school. Yet again, boredom arose and students resorted to new activities in order to cope.

Jordan Greenaway ’22 said he decided to spend more time playing baseball: “Over quarantine I would go with my baseball teammates to the field and practice. We would get there stretch, throw and hit for a couple hours until it got dark and we couldn’t go anymore. We did this so we would be ready to play summer baseball since high school baseball got cancelled.”

Anahatt Virk ‘22 said,“While quarantined over the summer I frequently went swimming in my backyard. During this last time, however,  I also began going on runs and walks in my neighborhood while listening to music.”

Despite hard times, students have been able to find ways to adapt to the circumstances they were put under and discover new interests. At the face of challenge, instead of focusing on the negatives, many students simply just found new forms of motivation.

“I would listen to Netflix while I ran to keep me motivated.” Sophie Tannen ‘22 said.  Yes, you read that right: listen to Netflix. That’s one way to catch up on an episode you missed.

As some students acknowledged, “you gotta do what you gotta do!”