Seniors and freshmen look back at the year
by Matias Ciulupa Campos
Friday, March 13, 2020 would be the last day the whole school would be in the building until March 15, 2021 – almost exactly one full year.
We are finally beginning to see the light at the end of the COVID tunnel. Approximately 40% of the American population has received at least one vaccination and nearly 25% has been fully vaccinated. Things are finally looking up. It was not always this certain, throughout the past year we have encountered much adversity and change in our day to day life. What was initially believed to be a two-week break off of school was eventually turned into several months of quarantine and isolation.
Henry Fresh celebrates his two-run homer in the win over Grantsville that would give the 18-2 Bulldogs the region championship. However Covid has put a pause to celebrations by some senior athletes who are now competing for scholarships with college seniors who have been granted another year of eligibility. Photo by Shaandiin Moore.
Some people have encountered much change in their athletic journeys, such as senior Dominic Burns “Due to the pandemic, the NCAA is allowing for seniors who had their season taken away by the pandemic to have an extra year. This means that for some schools they don’t need to recruit anymore players. This makes it really hard for me to be recruited as well.”
The pandemic greatly shifted priorities in many people’s lives and also made trivial tasks like simply going out to drive much more exciting.
“I’m excited to do things as simple as going to the grocery store and things as crazy as going to a huge concert with thousands of people,” senior Alyssa Bardugon said. “Life seems as though it has been on pause for an entire year.”
Artist statement by Grace Malooly: This piece is titled "Everyday Objects." It highlights the things that I touch throughout a regular day, with those objects placed in the loose shape of a hand. As our world has changed throughout this pandemic, we've lost contact with those around us. The hugs and handshakes that were a norm have been replaced by masks and hand-washing. We've become more aware of the things that everyone else touches and this piece reflects how integrated these practices have become in our lives.
By Sam Klemesrud
A lot of things have happened over this crazy year, but especially for freshmen.
First of all, school changed drastically during this pandemic. When the lockdown originally hit, I was in eighth grade and it was near the end of our year. At first, all of our classes were cancelled completely, and we just had weekly assignments to complete to try and keep up with the curriculum. After we discovered this virus was going to be around longer than we first thought though, we began zoom classes, the new trend for online schooling across the country. These classes were nice at first, just being on the couch and relaxing at home when we were supposed to be actually at school in uniform. There were many other pros to this schooling process, but the cons soon became apparent as well.
“I liked online school because the classes were easier and it was easier to get good grades,” Alex Denton said, “but I also really didn’t like it because I missed the social aspect of school, which I think is really important especially in freshman year.”
It was much harder to focus, and wifi issues such as lag during Zoom made it hard to hear the teacher sometimes. Even though we faced these challenges, we got through the year just fine.
After the summer, the virus still didn’t let up, so schools had to look for alternative options for teaching. Judge chose a hybrid learning schedule, where half of the kids would be in person while half were in a zoom meeting, and it would switch every Wednesday. I personally liked this schedule a lot, because you sort of get the best of both worlds. You get the relaxation and ease of online classes, but then you also get the social and focused aspects of in person school. After three quarters with this schedule, we finally went back to school all in person starting fourth quarter. It has been nice, and also kind of sad because I do still miss the pros of online school like sleeping in, not having to move around much, and having almost everything I would need a couple steps away.
Another challenge this pandemic brought was entertainment. Being stuck at home a lot and having social activities cancelled can prove a major challenge to some people, because they tend to get bored easily when alone at home. This was tough, but my friends and I came up with a simple way to combat this: we wasted all the newly-earned free time playing video games. While these past months maybe haven’t been the most productive in our lives, they have no doubt been among the most fun. Gaming with friends is such an awesome activity, and since all of us were stuck at home we had plenty of time to dedicate to this amazing hobby. It helped pass time better than anything yet, and it distracted us from any problems on our minds at the time. It was one of the few side effects of the lockdown that I truly appreciated.
Now that vaccines have been released, these times are coming to an end, but I’m sure all of this will be stuck in our memories for the rest of our lives.
The number of deaths worldwide attributed to Covid in April, 2021. Drawing by Nickolas Maez.
