Online matric has its blessings

I remember quite clearly my first day of matric. My mom positioned me in our garden, made me pose for some “last first day” photographs, and whisked me off to school. My classroom was electrified, all of us anxiously bouncing up and down, sharing disbelief and excitement that we had made it to our final year of school. Hugging my friends hello, lugging our heavy files through the halls, and settling into class, that day was charged with expectation.

At break, my friends and I discussed our upcoming year. Somebody said they were looking forward to the matric dance. Another wondered how many nights we’d spend in our classroom, doing past papers and finishing syllabi. Most discussed excitement for extravagant 18th birthday parties, or plans for matric holidays with all our friends. Somebody probably made a passing comment about that virus going around in China, something disconnected from our matric year entirely. How naïve we were!

Throughout 2020, I wrote for the SA Jewish Report about my matric experience. Zoom lessons and socially distanced classes aren’t foreign concepts to me nor to you readers. However, something I never fully touched on was my expectation of the year. I’m trying not to focus on what could’ve become a large part of my philosophy of 2020. If I had sat around and lamented all the opportunities, events, and experiences that COVID-19 stole from me during matric, I would have gone insane (well, more insane than I was locked away at home).

But as I come out of the final stage – receiving my results – I find that I have to confront the fact that my matric year did happen, and it happened in a totally different way to how I envisaged it would.

In 2020, I went to two parties. I attended night lessons from my dining room and had a matric valedictory on my school field. I recorded oral assignments on my laptop, and learned how to use Google Classroom. I would’ve laughed at the thought of any of this being real this time last year. However, in 2021, as I wait (rather impatiently) to embark on a gap year in Israel, I recognise the impact all of this has had on my upcoming year.

In Israel, I will have to become independent, an adult of sorts, quite the transition considering how much I rely on my parents. But is it such a transition? During matric under COVID-19, I had to learn to become self-sufficient in my learning as my teachers weren’t simply a two-minute walk away.

I learned the value of selflessness and generosity as I sat with my friends who explained concepts to me on Facetime, or shared their detailed notes with me via WhatsApp. I learned the value of being around friends and family, who I couldn’t see during such a pressured year. But probably most importantly, while stuck in my room for days on end, I learned about myself – what I stand for, what I love, what I dislike, what my values are.

Going into a gap year, my primary goal is to find myself further. I want to increase my independence, strengthen my relationships with my loved ones, and become closer to Judaism.

The great thing about this is that, due to COVID-19, I’m already well on my way to achieving this. In a way, COVID-19 has prepared me the most for my gap year, more than any packing lists or advice from past MTA attendees ever could.

Please G-d when I return from Israel, I will be able to attend university in person. For those who are going straight into studying, succeeding in doing matric through a screen has definitely given them an advantage as they navigate online varsity. Socially, it’s a different story.

Many of us have hardly ever explored beyond our Jewish bubble. Throw multiple lockdowns into the mix, and you’re looking at a lack of broader social skills. Getting to know people of different backgrounds and cultures is important, but after months of no human interaction and only seeing one another through a screen, integration into university life is only made harder.

Similarly in regard to work, COVID-19 has hindered us, making it scarier and potentially harder to adapt to an entirely new way of living.

That’s not to say it won’t help as well. We all have a common ground. I can discuss lockdown with the Australian girls on MTA with me, and my friends can discuss COVID-19 with their fellow university attendees who hail from different areas of South Africa.

And so, it’s hard to place the impact of COVID-19 on our future into one box because it comes with blessings and curses. What I know for sure is that we got through matric under COVID-19, and I believe we are all stronger for it.

That strength, resilience, determination, and selflessness will stand us in good stead as we enter into a new stage of life. To my fellow matrics, I say good luck, and I can’t wait to see where this year takes us.

• Dani Sack has been writing a column in the SA Jewish Report for the past year, documenting her experience in matric at Yeshiva College.