With East anticipating a full return to in-person learning in the fall, many students have been struggling to prepare for the accompanying shift in their lifestyles.
“There are a lot of freedoms that come with remote learning,” said rising junior Jane Doe. “This past year I’ve gotten used to being able to wake up on my own time, use my own bathroom, and, I think most importantly, eat my own snacks during the day.”
Doe, along with many students who elected to remain remote during the fourth quarter, worries that the next school year will herald an end to such freedoms.
“I mean, seriously, I don’t think I’ll be able to do without the snacks,” said Doe in a virtual interview with the ECHO, munching on a bowl of pretzels.
With many teachers holding no-food policies in their classrooms, it seems unlikely that snack lovers will be able to continue their ways. Though she believes she’ll have time between classes to sneak in a chip or baby carrot, Doe thinks the volume of her consumption will have to drastically decrease.
“I’ve been trying to prepare my body for the absence of snacks. Instead of 12 snacks a day, I’ve been trying to limit myself to eight, 10 at most.”
Doe says she has been making progress, but will need to work on a backup plan, in case she fails to adequately acclimatize herself before August.
“Over the past month I’ve been drawing up plans for a contraption of sorts. It fits pretty snugly in my backpack, and it has a sort of miniature pneumatic tube that pulls a cracker out of a snack chamber and flings it up out of my sleeve and into my mouth,” Doe said.
She then demonstrated her invention, which sputtered momentarily before spewing out dozens of small cookies and crackers at high velocities.
“It needs a bit of work, and it definitely restricts movement when fully deployed, but I really think I’m onto something,” she said, grabbing the spilled snacks from the ground and shoving them into her mouth.
Though particularly passionate, Doe is not alone in her snack-related concerns. The East In-Class Snack Preservation Club has begun holding weekly strategy meetings, with the aim of devising and promoting new techniques for sneaking snacks into class.
“Honestly, readjusting to a more rigorous schedule, finally seeing some of my friends in person after a year and half and regaining a sense of normalcy in my life all don’t seem that important,” Doe said. “It’s all about the snacks for me.”
Photo courtesy of Ben/Pexels
