With the surge of the Omicron variant largely behind us and COVID cases much lower than they were at the height of the pandemic, society has been slowly opening up again. More restaurants are filling its tables, people are making travel plans, and more clubs and activities are meeting in person. But how do we go from two years of masking and quarantine to simply going back to normal?

Students at MT have different ways of coping with these changing times. For some, such as freshman Leighton Underwood, it’s been rather uncomplicated. “I felt like it was easy getting back to normal, but it probably took longer than most people expected,” he said. Underwood was already exposed from wrestling, so he decided to take his mask off when the mandate first dropped.

Underwood feels that there’s an option for everyone. “If you feel comfortable enough, then you don’t have to wear [a mask], and for the people that don’t feel comfortable enough, they can still wear it. So it’s like a good in-between.”

This “in-between” is something that students have had to navigate over the past couple of months. Some situations better lend themselves to mask wearing, others don’t, and overall, it just depends on the individual.

“There still is some concern with the pandemic because it seems to come in waves, and even though it is pretty low right now, you never really know when it could jump back up,” said sophomore Lucy VanHarskamp.

For some, part of the concern with COVID is the unpredictability of the variants that come and go. For example, cases of the new BA2 variant have been increasing in Europe right now, and some places in the US have seen an uptick as well. Nevertheless, people have learned to live with COVID and the adjustments that need to be made.

“I still wear [a mask] just to be on the safe side, but it really just depends on who I’m with and where I’m going and what’s happening,” said junior Lauren High. She’s been wearing a mask at school and in big groups to keep her and others safe. But when she’s with her close friends, who all take similar precautions of their own, High feels comfortable going maskless and letting go of some restrictions.

“I feel like I’m pretty safe with my vaccinations. There’s only so much I can do,” High said.

As a result of lightened restrictions in PA and the high school, more people have been getting back to their activities and events that were happening before the pandemic.

Katie Sensenig, a junior, went to a basketball game with her dad a few weeks ago. “The last time I went to one was like 2019, and it was just crazy being in an arena with [20,000] people with this still going on — obviously we were still very careful — but it was just weird after having all of this going on that we were doing it again.”

In a similar vein, students and teachers alike have been getting back to a pre-COVID way of learning in the high school. As social distancing mandates eased, many teachers have gone back to grouping classes’ desks together, which allows for greater collaboration between students.

“It feels more normal and it feels good to be able to get back to that,” Van Harskamp said.

Some bigger changes have also been taking place as well, such as the reintroduction of major school events. “It’s really been nice because seeing the past few graduating classes not be able to do all that stuff that they were really hoping to do, like prom and just having to skip out on Mini Thon—it hasn’t been fun,” said High. “So, I’m glad that I’m getting it back for when I’m an upperclassman. And I’m grateful for the chance.”