Navigating High School Through Covid
Everyone has had a different impact on their lives from Covid-19. For me, when Covid first hit the US, I was in the second half of my sophomore year in high school. It started out as extra time off for spring break. That turned into finishing out the year online. I didn’t get to experience all of the social events I was looking forward to; Dance Marathon, Prom with my friends, going to open houses for my friends that were graduation, and many other things. Despite the negatives, I learned a lot of good things throughout this time.
I found out how much I enjoyed being around people, and being actively involved. When school started in the fall of 2020, my junior year, everything was online. We spent most of the first trimester online, which was very difficult for me. When we resumed in person, the school was at half capacity and I was only able to go every other day, this was our hybrid/yellow phase schedule. This was better because I was able to ask my teachers questions and I felt that it was easier to stay engaged in the lessons. Since I have been involved in a choir, it was also a better schedule for being involved there. Online, we were very limited with what we were able to do. In person, hybrid we could at least sing together, and get to bond. After our winter break, we went back online for about a month. When did get to go back hybrid, I got to go for a week and then I had to switch back online because my family ended up moving and we had to stay out of town while our new house was being renovated. When I came back, we were luckily all in person, 5 days a week and we got to stay this way for the rest of the year. Thankfully, I was able to stay keep myself from becoming ill with anything. I didn’t even catch my regular cold when the seasons changed.
My 2021 summer was fairly normal, my town lifted their mask mandate and we were free to do most things, almost like the summer of 2019. In June, I spent most of the month with my mom in Florida, some of our friends visited us for a week while we were there too. At the end of the month, we came back home so that I could go to two weeks of a camp for the annual musical my choir puts on. I couldn’t believe how much I missed it. I was out most nights with a group of friends eating, watching movies, jet skiing, or just running around. For 5 days in July I went to Mackinac Island, Michigan and biked around the island almost everyday. After that, I flew back to Florida to meet up with my mom and one of my best friends I hadn’t seen since school.
My senior year started all in person, but with the mask mandate being reinstated. I am just thrilled to be in the school with all of my friends and being able to continue with all the normal high school activities so far. I have gone to all the football games with my friends and my choir is continuing with our evening rehearsals for the musical. I am so excited to see what comes this year and I plan to make the best of what is thrown at me. If I’ve learned anything in the year and a half, it’s that flexibility is important when planning and to never give up.
