Our Pandemic Year: A Retrospective

Julianna Rodrigues, Features Editor:

Thinking back to a year ago on Friday, March 13th, 20/20, I find it crazy to be where I am as of now. I have done a lot of self reflecting, learning and growing during this past year and it still continues.

As someone who took school very seriously always tried their hardest and was pretty decent at the role I thought that being home would be easy. In fact that first week where it was considered an early spring break I caught up on a bunch of notes and work that was up and coming for the next two weeks worth of school. However, things started to get rough as the pressure of isolation started to set in and everyone was kind of getting used to this whole learning from home. It was disheartening when it did not work for me the way I wanted it to and I felt myself slipping within my studies and in my persona. As time went on through the year I started pushing myself some more again and teaching myself new things, teaching myself about news of world around me, I found myself learning how to self-reflect and be able to truly be at peace with the fact that even though I was unable to go out and see my friends for a year, or even go to school physically at the end of the day I was still healthy and my family was healthy and that is what matters. I am overjoyed to say that at this point of the pandemic that with vaccines being given around, hopefully some sense of normalcy comes back; but I thank my experience for teaching me the value of family and personal health.

Samuel Loranger, News Editor:

As I look back on this past year, it is easy to solely long for the experiences that never came to fruition. While the feeling of loss and non attainment was a theme throughout the last year, it is also meaningful to look at the experiences I did have, and am grateful to have underwent.

As a pianist, quarantine, and the need to be individualistic that came along with it, granted me the freedom and time to work on my own skills and technique and improve as a soloist. Not only did society receive a reminder on the purpose of individualism, but many also gained much needed self discipline as they could no longer rely on habitual support structures that may have been compromised by the need to quarantine. Personally, I gained the self discipline to set goals in music and in school. To me, in retrospective this past year has not all been fully ineffectual when regarded with a half-glass-full perspective. Nobody wishes to look back on life as woeful, so my advice is to pick out bits and pieces that were found to be joyous, and never let those go. Remember the good parts, because life is too short.