“I got way bored, and then my friends wouldn’t answer their phone. Then I had to play all by myself. So I just drew and watched protests on TikTok.” - Korron, 5th grade

“The last couple of days we were in school, it was like there was no one there.” - Cash, 8th grade

“Through it all, the struggles and mental health dips, the breakdowns in the seemingly endless, endless zoom classes…There was always a story to tell and a story to read. The stories were no longer an optional escape from the sci-fi reality we called the pandemic.” - Christyn, 11th grade

“In a city that was once known as the city that never sleeps, it is almost as if the city has now fallen to rest.” - Obinna, 10th grade

“The pandemic helped me be creative with my art. I started just doing digital art and started to paint again too.” - Anastasia, 6th grade

“Until quarantine, I never looked inwards and saw the hole in my heart.” - Angela, 11th grade

“When I got to my new school, I wasn’t able to see half my classmates because the school was split up. And guess whose fault it was? Yep. COVID.” - Nolan, 8th grade

“As a biracial brown person, I knew about the injustices and police brutality towards minorities. But I never thought that anything like this would happen in Minneapolis.” - Nithali, 9th grade

“I realized I’d compartmentalized everything. I thought only in logical terms — this is the way things are, this is what I have to do. I had to keep moving, keep working. I couldn’t control what was going on in the world, but I could keep control over my life. I never processed what I lost.” - Abby, 11th grade

“When we came back to school, we had to wear a mask. If we wanted to play a game or something like that it was hard because we would be out of breath.” - Serenity, 5th grade