COVID-19 has greatly impacted this year for me in many different ways. Growing up in a small town, my peers and I never really had anything exciting happen; our school was out in the middle of nowhere and the middle of a bunch of cornfields. The only thing we really had to look forward to was the year 2020 – the year we would graduate from high school.

Fast-forward 12 years, and we finally made it to the last semester of our last school year. We could all see the light at the end of the tunnel and were excited to start the next chapter of our lives. We had all heard about COVID-19 and all of the different parts of the world it was affecting, but we never gave it a second thought. We sorta thought we were invincible and like we were all safe in our little town, considering whenever something happened elsewhere in the world, it never really affected us.

Out of nowhere, this pandemic took a turn for the worst and blindsided all of us. We were all shocked to hear that we would have an extended Spring Break. I remember everyone being extremely upset, especially the senior athletes who were afraid their last chance to play a sport was going to be ripped away from them. I had spent most of the morning of March 13 in my guidance counselor’s office trying to get my scholarship information situated, and I remember leaving her office, and on the way out she said, “have a nice break, I’ll see you soon!” Little did we all know that that was never going to happen.

After that, it seemed as though the bad news kept coming. As our Spring Break continued to be extended, panic started to settle amongst my senior class. One by one, special events like spring sports, prom, homecoming, senior tea, graduation, and our senior trip were all taken away from us. I remember reading comments on the internet stating that while people understood what seniors across the country were going through was tough, we needed to not be selfish and that other people had it worse. All of this contributed to what would be some of the hardest months of my life, mentally and emotionally.

All in all, it was hard not experiencing a normal senior year, especially after attending the same school all of my life and seeing all of the classes before me get to enjoy some of the best moments of their lives. I felt like all of my hard work had gone to waste. Though after starting college, I feel like I have grown as an individual, and the saying “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” has applied to my life now more than ever.