As most of us know, life isn’t always the easiest whether it’s because of something someone said or something someone did. Maybe you just had a bad day, and you weren’t expecting it to go the way it did. Well life is full of surprises, and we’re never sure of what’s to come for the future. If you’re reading this, years from now, I’d like for you to prepare yourself for the future. For a school year, where I saw myself going each day, waking up and heading off to school. Seeing my teachers, seeing my friends. Simply out of the blue, it was gone. Just like that. Corona…ladies and gents. This article is a story about something called the Coronavirus

If you don’t know much about this Coronavirus, the scientific name is called Covid-19. This can lead you to assume that it was first found and diagnosed in 2019. Well, little did anyone know that this virus would soon spread to people all over the planet. It went from taking over town by town, to state by state, to finally causing entire countries to lock down. People everywhere during this time have all learned a new word and will have a story to tell about it for years to come. That word you might ask is social distancing. 

Social distancing is a set of actions taken to stop or slow the spread of a highly contagious disease. The goal is to limit face-to-face contact to decrease the spread of the illness among people in community settings. This ended up causing counties to close schools, shut down public playgrounds and parks, close more dine-in restaurants, close jobs, and more. When everyone first got wind of the news, schools decided to cancel all extra curricular activities, including the remainder of sports seasons for student athletes. This meant no more lacrosse, no more soccer, no more track, no more sports. It was simply unimaginable for us to go to school without sports. And I know you might be thinking how crazy that sounds, but for some athletes, like Abby Clark, it was her last go around at it.

Abby being a senior this year, joined cross country her freshman year and continued on until her final season, four years later. Along with XC, she participated in track, but due to corona, season four is being left on pause and will finalize as discontinued. When talking to Abby, she says that, “Yes, it’s hard not knowing how my year will end, and even though I was looking forward to the rest of my senior year, I’m so blessed with how the past four years have turned out. I will always have a special place in my heart for all the memories that Apex High has given me.”

When I got the chance to talk to some other seniors, they have said how it all happened so fast, but never once did they imagine it to come this far. They also wanted to remind everyone to cherish the things they have whether it be the opportunities they are given, the places they may go, etc. Cherish your loved ones and the chances you have to spend with them and make the most of your time making unforgettable memories you’ll never forget. My heart goes out to all the seniors because of what they are missing: the possibility of losing their prom, for the athletes and their last senior sports seasons, , or even the uncertainty of walking across a physical stage to receive their diplomas. The student body would agree that this is all scary not knowing what’s to come. 

Another student, Emma Whitley, a sophmore, said she was truly looking forward to the rest of her soccer season and finishing with such a good group of girls. She wishes for another chance to play alongside them, along with seeing her fellow teammates and friends in the hallways at school and inside the classroom. On a more positive note, she said that she’s been able to work on more projects at home, spend more time with her family, and has been able to watch a ton of new shows that she hasn’t gotten the time to cover. 

It’s crazy to even imagine our lives after this is all over. It will have been almost two months if not more since any of us have seen the inside of a school or a teacher face-to-face or even the insides of a restaurant or gone to places like a gym or flown on a plane on a vacation. Even though our world has been put on pause for a while, remember to try and find light, even when it seems like the darkest of situations. If you’re reading this years from now, this was a crazy and an unforgettable time for everyone. But it was also a time to grow closer to the ones we were quarantined with, a time to take care of ourselves, and to get some things done. 

When the ban is lifted and people are allowed to interact with one another, hug each other, go to a store and find fully stocked aisles of toilet paper and bread, or are able to be closer than just six feet apart, I’m sure we’ll never, ever, see a bottle of hand sanitizer the same again.