June 20, 2021
Keeping afloat has been difficult during my first full year of virtual learning. Having a global pandemic throw my life off track has taught me a lot, not just about the topics in the classes I take but about how I learn and what I took for granted.
Since I am introverted and not keen on leaving the house too often, I thought I would fare just fine self-quarantining. I thought I would do better learning virtually, as I’ve spent the past few years getting familiar with technology and how to better use it. And all of this has been true for the most part.
When hybrid learning started up, I stayed home. When the concert band started holding in-person rehearsals, I stayed home. Of course, I had not been vaccinated, and I was worried I could spread the virus, but there was that bit of me that didn’t want things to change because I liked my new routine.
LHS has given me opportunities to reinvent myself, and while I might not have taken advantage of them all, I’m grateful for them.
During my over two-and-a-half years of in-person high school and year and three months of virtual learning, I experienced a few major changes. During freshman year, I joined the marching band. It was a big shift in my life to have new responsibilities and be in an environment that was new to me with over a hundred people in one room all socializing and playing music together. Joining the marching band was one of the best decisions I ever made, and it started completely on a whim. The change in my everyday life led me in a better direction.
The other major change was, of course, switching to virtual learning. I had new responsibilities, having to keep up with the online work from the comfort of my bedroom. It threw me off, but not in an ideal direction.
LHS has given me opportunities to reinvent myself, and while I might not have taken advantage of them all, I’m grateful for them. Now that I’m graduating, I have another chance to change. I can’t keep the same old, bad habits and be fine with them. I don’t know what the big change will be, but I’m hoping to find it at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark.
Thank you to all the teachers I’ve had throughout my years at LHS, specifically former band teacher Mr. Dellosa, who led the band program when I joined as a sophomore. I would not be the same person today if I hadn’t joined the band.
I know this senior tribute is supposed to be about me, but I don’t want it to be. I hope you can find something to relate to in what I have written, and I hope you can get some insight that is relevant to your own life. Do you need something in your life to change? If so, take my advice and take that leap of faith. Trust me, you won’t regret it.
