You come into school on the first day with two parallel expectations. Either you’re optimistic about new experiences, or you’re part of the majority: the cynics. Needless to say, it’s hard to be in the former of the two groups with what public schools have thrown at you, but maybe this time it will be different.
Maybe this time the barrier will be broken. You won’t slump out of bed every morning, aimlessly groping around your kitchen to put together four cups of coffee for the day. When you go outside, you’ll embrace the frigid Ithacan air. Whichever way you get to school, you’ll have one thing on your mind: “I will defeat this difficult day in my difficult life.”
The day rolls on quite smoothly. It’s eighth period now, meaning PE is your final task for the day. You didn’t have to change this time because you’ve been cooped up with your fellow students to go over all of the technicalities and clear all the boring stuff. You’ll get over it, though. You can push through! Remember your mantra. Whatever high school throws at you will be caught and thrown right back at it. You’ll be on your A-game this year. Appreciation is the origin of positivity, meaning you won’t take what you’re given for granted. You’ll ace your APs and your BCs.
Then, the Chromebook is in your hands. Now you remember. Last year you were told about these stupid things. Teachers talking about how annoying conversion would be and fellow students talking about how “the money shoulda’ been spent on the bathrooms, am I right dude?” It’s going to be a daunting experience. Something you’ll hate for the entirety of your school career. Reluctantly, you plug the charging cord into an outlet. For a brief moment you hope that there’s some sort of error with your computer—anything to get you away from this awful Chromebook.
There are many reasons to hate these Devil-devices: perhaps the fact that they reduce overall paper usage in the school (ball is life, and you hate the fact there’s a less competitive paper-tossing environment). Maybe the fact that they give an equal playing ground to the many underprivileged students in the school (this particularly angers you as you have enjoyed your time above others). The lack of Netflix usage is definitely up there as well.
It only gets worse from here. You notice that websites such as Facebook are taken down. How are you supposed to message your friends in school now? You wanted to throw them a funny message about how you’re “sending this from the Chromebook!” It’s blatantly unfair that you are unable to do that. You deserve much more than a device to aid you in your time at school: you deserve something great!
The worst is yet to come. One September night, you turn on your Chromebook. You go to check your homework (at around 10 pm, as you were too busy doing other things to care about school), but something’s not working. Scratch that, everything’s not working. Google Classroom won’t even load! You feel offended deep down. A few of your precious hours have been wasted by this awful device. Technical difficulties should not be allowed.
And so you begin to piece together the reasons as to why Chromebooks are the worst thing that could ever happen to IHS. You question the integrity of the school district. The futility of the situation only worsens that awful feeling in your stomach. However, not all hope is lost. There are still things you can do.
First off, tell everyone how awful Chromebooks are. It’s important that half of the discussions in your friend group focus on this pressing issue. Bring it outside of your friend group as well, though. As a matter of fact, reader, I urge you, please further advance the cause by telling the student with the reduced lunch fee how awful Chromebooks are every day. Come on, why can’t people just get their own computers?