Throughout this pandemic, I have learned many life lessons. Things like taking advantage of the time you get with loved ones and cherish the memories you have with those around you, to things like enjoying the privileges you have because you may not always be so lucky. That being said, one thing less that I think we can all take with us as the world begins to open up once again is to always make the most of what you have and what you are given.

At the beginning of the pandemic, almost everyone lost something that we had in our everyday lives. Some lost the ability to meet with grandparents, the ability to spend time with friends, going to work, and we as teenagers lost the ability to socialize with friends and teachers at school. Not only did we lose the social aspect of school, but we also lost the chance to interact with our teachers to learn to the very best of our abilities. Instead, we learned how to use programs like Google Meet, Zoom, and how to make sure our Wifi works well for online learning. We also lost activities like in-person clubs, school dances, and sports games and playing sports in “normal” ways. This is one thing that had a larger impact on my life than I could have expected. Along with school, we were given online workouts and tasks in an attempt to maintain skills that we had while we were in this period of isolation. Luckily, as an outdoor sport, we were able to open up semi-quickly. With that, however, practices weren’t normal. We had to be distanced, with masks, taking temperatures, and we weren’t able to play the game that we love. It was a tough adjustment at first, but we got into a routine of things and were able to start learning new things with the given circumstances. Although it was so very different, we had to make the most of the situation we were in.

“If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.”

-Bruce Lee

I’ve heard from my peers that it was a huge adjustment for all of us. I mean we are high schoolers living through a pandemic. It is a hard task that challenged us all. We had to learn to make connections with each other through a phone screen, or a mask. We had to learn over a computer screen with little to no hands-on experience. We were given what seemed like a huge burden, but I feel as though a lot of people around us were able to make the most of the situation. People were able to volunteer in the community, help with food drives, and even Covid-19 relief packages. We were able to learn much more in our sports than when we are prepping for a season. I think we learned to appreciate the privileges that we had because we all came to learn it can be taken away in an instant. We were able to make the most out of what we had, even if it didn’t seem like a whole lot.

Moving forward, there will most definitely be more adjustments, more life lessons to learn, and more experiences that we will go through to get us back to what we feel is “normal” after this pandemic. I hope that we can remember the hardships that we went through as high schoolers, a community, and a country and carry on what we learned in our future lives. It is so important to always make the most of what you have because you never know what may come your way and what may be changed so quickly.