This time last year I was a freshmen, I had just finished up with the basketball season and was shifting to the softball season. At the time, I was very exited to start a new sport during the break , but as we were heading off to spring break, that’s when everything happened. Now that I look back on how everything played out, its pretty crazy. My last class I was in before leaving school was Mr. Griffitts, and the last thing he said before we left was just to keep a look out on the school news because they might close. Little did we know, he was right.

Once it was announced that the break was being extended I was was definitely happy. I was enjoying the time I was spending with my family. We had cookouts, went to the park, and we even had mini bonfires with smore’s, I was genuinely happy. After the school continuously kept extending the break and we were gone from school for like a month, I realized the depth of the virus. When I saw that the virus had turned into a pandemic I was shocked, as long as I’ve been alive I’ve never experienced anything like this.

In the beginning of the quarantine I was fine and wasn’t really affected by the pandemic yet, besides the fact that the softball season got canceled. But as time went on and we still weren’t able to normally go outside or places in general, it definitely took a toll on my mental health. I’m one of the kids who don’t speak on their problems to others, I just deal with them on my own and call it a day. I’ve never been the type to open up about anything, so when I began to be affected mentally no one knew, but I dealt with it and overcame it with my ways and own my own.

One thing that positively came out of the pandemic for me was the personal growth within myself. At this age teens are going through different states of growth to mature. Since a young age I have always been mature, but I still did little childish things that were unnecessary, being isolated from others was helpful to me because I was able to mature, understand, and work on myself for the better and that might’ve not happened if we weren’t in the pandemic.

Although COVID happened in the blink of an eye and is still here, I’m thankful for the things it has taught me in life. Since it’s a virus you may not think you can learn anything from it but if you look at it in depth and how everything was affected by it, you truly can learn some things.