March 13, 2020, was the last time I ever saw the faces of the people I grew up with in a school setting. 

I vividly remember being in my ProStart class, learning how to become more efficient in cooking. The announcement came on, and our principal relayed a message to the entire school that we would be out of school for two weeks. 

The excitement on everyone’s faces glistened. I could overhear people planning how they would spend their two weeks out of school.

Once the final bell rang, the halls flooded with everyone cheering, completely oblivious about what was really ahead of us. One by one, I saw the faces of people I had known since elementary school get on their buses to go home, and it was the last time I ever saw them. 

One of my biggest regrets is not having a good majority of their social media to keep in touch. I have no idea what they’re up to, what they look like now or if they’re even alive. 

Being the first graduating class affected by COVID-19 and the experimental group of how to proceed with education, it was a bumpy road. Teachers and students had a rough transition going fully remote. My motivation to excel in my academics went out the window. There was a math class that I was doomed to fail, but because of COVID, I was able to pass. Since remote, lockdown learning had never been done on such a large scale, our final grades were based on our grade average from last week’s grade, so I ended up passing all my classes and being able to graduate. 

When the graduation ceremony came, there was a strict set of rules to follow. It almost felt militarized the way they had us lined up. We were only allowed to bring two guests to watch the ceremony. 

It was held outside on the school’s football field and the weather was grey and gloomy outside since it just rained a day prior. There were seats spread out six feet apart across the field for us to sit in. It was really quiet and even just trying to speak to the person next to you, it felt like everyone on the field could hear you. 

The atmosphere matched the reality of what the world was going through. I could tell we were all thinking the same thing: wondering how differently things could’ve been and how the last two months of our senior year had been taken from us.

After the ceremony wrapped up, everyone gathered with their invited guests, and we all dispersed—that was the last time I saw my classmates together. After that, quarantine continued to drag on and on. 

Not being able to leave the house was suffocating. I lived the same day over and over again. I woke up, hopped on my Xbox and played video games from day to night, rinse and repeat. Everyone in my family was also holed up in their rooms, not socializing. I knew this wasn’t the most ideal way to be spending my days, but what else could I do? 

After some months went by and society started to progress back to normal, I enrolled in online classes at BRCC. I still wasn’t quite ready to jump back into my academic career so suddenly, but I pushed through. I finished out my associate’s in a couple of years at BRCC, transferred to Southeastern, and began my first in-person classes since 2020. It felt like I had to learn how to be a student all over again. 

COVID may have set a lot of things back, but I learned things about myself I otherwise wouldn’t have. It helped me figure out what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, who my real friends are, and where I stand morally. I always wonder how different my life would be if COVID-19 never happened, but I’m happy with how my life is now, and I wouldn’t change it for anything.