Items

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  2020-05

  A Pandemic Ending

  The memory I think of first when asked about my experience with the pandemic was my last day of school. In May of 2020, I was a high school senior (and convinced I had the worst luck). It started in mid-March with two weeks of online school, which was then followed by morning after morning of anxiously checking the news to see if the nightmare was finally over. Day after day I was met with more uncertainty and yearning for an email saying everything could return to the way it was. After weeks of being let down the day finally came, my last day of school. Twelve years of education coming to a close on a Google Hangouts call. As I saw my classmates pop up on tiny boxes on my screen I began to think. This was the only year I wanted to savor every day. Every class, no matter how dry, was meant to be mine. I wished away three years of school just to have the days I waited for be ripped away from me. I frantically search for somewhere to place blame, someone to direct all my anger towards. I closed my laptop, walked into the kitchen, and that was it. It was all over. No hugging friends in the hallway, thanking teachers for the impact they had, crying in the parking lot with my best friend, or struggling to open my locker one last time. At that point, the only positive I could find was the next day was a weekday and I could sleep until noon. I was told to look on the bright side, that I would be off to college in a few months and it would be a time for new experiences. Although this would be something a normal high school senior would be excited about, nothing about my class was normal. In a matter of a few weeks, we learned that none of the “fundamental” milestones of growing up were guaranteed. It was up in the air whether I would be moving halfway across the country or be confined to my childhood bedroom in August. At the time it felt like things were not over yet. That is the fall I would head back to high school and finally close that chapter of my life. But that never came. Two years later so many of us are in search of closure, feeling as though we’re imposters who are not qualified to be where we are.
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  2020-06-21

  A Class of 2020 Student's Covid Story

  When I was in the second grade, I remember my math teacher telling my whole class that we would be graduating high school in the year 2020. It seemed so long ago, like this far away land that didn't exist. We all smiled and chatted amongst ourselves about how 2020 was such a cool-sounding year and we liked having that year to look forward to. Elementary school became middle school which became high school and then it was my senior year all the sudden. My high school has a tradition in which seniors paint some boulders behind our school with our class colors and have a barbecue. At senior barbecue, we complained about how we just couldn't wait 7 more months until prom and graduation, and how excited we were for them. If only we had known that none of those things would happen. I remember in March of 2020 going to Chicago away from my hometown of Baltimore to visit the college I'd decided on, and the news was a storm of talk about a virus called covid-19. My high school friends were blowing up my phone with texts telling me that we were off school for 2 weeks and how "awesome" this was. I remember having a gut feeling that this would not be "awesome." Though everything virtually shut down from March to May, my 4 best friends from high school and I were luckily still able to have a somewhat normal summer safely; we went swimming in the lake by my house and camped and it forced us to actually get some exercise. I also was fortunate enough to still make some money over the summer at the childcare center I worked at. I was fortunate in those ways, but I think anyone would agree it just wasn't the same. I remember being heartbroken about prom and graduation at first, until it hit me that this was a problem so much larger than Dulaney High School in Maryland. Bigger than the east coast, bigger than all of America. This was a virus affecting virtually everyone on the planet. That mindset is crucial to keeping everyone safe; your parties can wait. Your trip to Disney can wait. I knew my prom and graduation being sacrificed was for a greater good. I've heard that your true character isn't how you act in your finest hour, but in your worst. I'd say COVID has become a identifier for that.
• 2021-01-24

  My Student Staff Lost Their Graduations

  I manage a staff of Math and Science student tutors for one of the Arizona State University campuses. In early 2020, five of my staff were seniors who started to get excited about their upcoming May graduations. As COVID-19 started spreading, they began to worry that their commencements would not take place. Sadly, they were correct. It was heartbreaking watching them try to accept that their last four to five years of study would not culminate into the graduations they were so looking forward to experiencing. I tried to comfort them by reminding them that all of their hard work these last several years was about to pay off in a future that would provide them many opportunities to succeed. It did not comfort them. Next, I tried to put into words that although their disappointment was valid, their ultimate goal was not walking across a stage but instead to realize their dreams of becoming scientists, mathematicians, medical doctors, etc. It did not help. In the end, it was what it was. There was nothing I could say to make them feel better. In retrospect, what could possibly have been said to comfort these students who may very well have been the first group since the Spanish Flu pandemic that would not experience a traditional university graduation? This was not a time for words. It was just a time to be there if they needed someone to listen and vent to without judgement. True to form, these five did apply to medical and graduate schools, and forensic science positions. I know great things are in store for them. Hopefully, if this pandemic has taught them anything, it is perseverance in the face of adversity. To not give up and keep moving forward.