Ever since the pandemic hit, students have been worried about losing contact with their friends, and wondering how to make new friends at their high school. 

One group of friends have no worries of any of that at all! They have regular zoom meetings after classes to talk, chat, and play games together. 

The group contains about roughly around 10-15 freshmen from MECA which this writer is regularly a part of. Yara Eslayed, the person who started these zoom meetings has made our experience at MECA better for everyone. 

One of the reasons for these meetings was to watch Wandavision every Friday at 12:00am so that we didn’t miss a new episode. After watching the episode, we all go back to a scene and pause it so we can “annotate” all over it. We draw on the characters and write funny remarks over it.

Sometimes the meetings are for help with homework, which Gloria Amador takes over for those. They are after school and usually Wednesdays or Fridays. 

Some of the time, the zoom parties are just for chatting or playing games. We play roblox a lot and other types of games that aren’t video games. The meetings usually start at 9:00 and ends at 12:00-2:00AM.

Karaoke is one of the few things we also do while there. Everyone gets a chance to sing if they want to and we all compliment each other afterwards. 

There are also instances where we all watch a movie and talk through the chat on zoom through it. Arielle Fabros says, “My favorite thing to do during the zooms is probably just talking to each other or doing watch parties for movies and shows.” 

Everyone learns a lot about each other through these activities and have made closer bonds with everyone. 

Gloria Amador explains, “It’s a chill time to hang out with friends with quarantine happening, there’s not always the opportunity to hang out with friends so zoom is a great way to connect. Friends are willing to help with homework and that’s a big help towards our grade.”

Sometimes everyone has their camera when they’re comfortable, but from time to times they turn it off every now and again. We all talk very much though that’s for sure. 

Some events we are planning in the future for zoom meets are

1. Watching the anime Demon Slayer
2. Watching the new episodes of the anime Beastars
3. Playing truce again
4. Playing roblox yet again
5. Playing Minecraft
6. Animal Crossing
7. Pictionary 

If you would like to join in in all the fun, you can find us on Discord! www.gracie !!#1553 is my username you can use to friend me, and I will invite you to join a server that sends out the zoom links when they’re ready. Can’t wait to see you there!