Junior Joseph Jeong decided that waking up early to get ready for a Zoom school day just wasn’t worth it. Convenience has, and will always be, Jeong’s preference for morning preparation — especially how he dresses.

“The normal look I have for Zoom meetings for an online school day is basically just a T-shirt and pajama pants,” Jeong said. “I wake up eight minutes before class so that’s about it. If I had more time, I probably could be perfectly comfortable with just wearing clothes I would normally wear to school.”

Senior Sravya Kari similarly stays in pajama pants while wearing a presentable shirt. Being in  seven months of quarantine has given her unexpected insight into the importance of comfort, and she finds that dressing with convenience in mind has benefited her.

“If I am wearing comfortable clothes, it’ll be better for me to adjust and I’ll be able to grasp the material more in my opinion,” Kari said. “Being comfortable has improved my study habits, in a sense, and I’ve learned how I work and how I can be more productive using my sense of fashion or my sense of simplicity in remote learning.”

History teacher Bonnie Belshe sports a similar style to Jeong and Kari, calling her unique spin “mullet dressing,” referencing how the popular 80s hairstyle kept the front portion professional and the back completely free with her formal upper appearance and more relaxed pants.

“The focus on Zoom is right on the face [and] on the shoulders up, and so I just feel like if I’m going to be dealing with new tech and technology issues … I want to be as comfortable as possible for that,” Belshe said. “The top half absolutely is the same thing that I would have worn on campus. I like how [mullet dressing] gets me in that mindset of teaching in the day.”

The new dress code only states that students should dress mindfully, serving as a reminder that although education has changed to accommodate quarantine, distance learning is still school. The lax restrictions on dress codes during distance learning present an opportunity for more convenient attire.

According to Belshe, convenience has always played an important role in education, online or not. With her school preparation largely remaining the same, convenience has proven to be beneficial toward teaching online during quarantine, with previous concerns such as commute no longer being prominent priorities.

“Being comfortable factors in all the time — whether it’s online or in person, comfort [is] going to be key with that,” Belshe said. “Let’s be comfortable to where we can totally at least make one piece of remote learning a little easier for us.”