Covid Covid Covid

Hello Oak Hill class of 2023 and to all in attendance, I am Ethan Vattaso and my four years of high school have not been what I expected. Coming into my freshman year I was a scared little kid with no plan for my future. All the upperclassmen that day were as big as a giant and this really intimidated me. A few days in I got to know more and more people and I got to like high school a lot more. The first big event for me in high school was homecoming, and this might have been the best week of my whole high school experience. This week really showed me how our high school came together as one and I felt that I was a part of something and this moment really helped me achieve great things further on. But the biggest welcoming to high school was the homecoming dance. If you were there that year, you know what went down in the cafeteria that night was nothing you have ever seen before at a school dance before. That moment really made me realize that high school was nothing like middle school and a lot of these kids are adults and that they must look at me like I’m a lost kid on the street. After homecoming, high school became pretty boring again because it’s just school work over and over again. But you gotta enjoy the time you have now because you don’t know what life will be like in the future. This moment right here was when my whole high school experience would take a turn. 

March 20, 2020 a week before my freshman year of baseball. We all got the call from the school, “Due to Covid 19 all RSU4 schools will be closed until further notice” and that was it. We were all lost, I was lost, I had so many questions. I was looking forward to this baseball season and now I had it all taken away from me. “What about school?” Are we just gonna sit at home now and do nothing? Yes that is what we all did, or at least that’s what I did. For a month we all sat at home worrying about Covid and did nothing until we found out we would do virtual learning. This was a whole different experience. Covid was a zombie apocalypse, or at least that was what it felt like. Being near somebody with Covid was a high chance you were gonna come down with it. I had lost all confidence I had to do school work. I hated this online stuff and most of all hated covid. I didn’t get to see any of my friends and this was really hard for me. This was a bad moment in all of our lives. I didn’t seem like the same person anymore, and I just wanted everything to go back to normal. But then the next school year came along, and it was the same old same old. We were still online but we were able to go into school half of the time. This was a disaster of an experience for me. I honestly hated wearing masks but I knew I had to do what I could to still get my education. Walking into the school for the first time that year it was so empty and all you could see was everyone in masks. This really sums up sophomore year, masks and hybrid learning. Then came junior year, this year I had a feeling it was gonna be the year. Covid had died down and that this was going to be a normal year. But nope, the first day of school we were still in masks, this wasn’t the worst but it still didn’t make my high school experience seem normal. Then came pool testing, this wasn’t fun either because this could be the reason I couldn’t play sports if my pool tested positive and sports was the only thing pushing me through these rough times. But then I got advice from one of my teachers and they said “Senior year’s right around the corner, you gotta make the most out of your high school experience while you still have it.” I really took this to heart and, not even joking, the week after that, we didn’t have to wear masks anymore. Then came Spring Fling that year. This was the closest thing to making high school feel normal again for me. It really brought the competitiveness back into me and brightened up the past two years of school. This brought back the feeling of freshman year and homecoming because this was my first real spring fling and I wanted to enjoy it for the first time. Even though we lost this was a great way to end Junior year. 

Then came Senior year, wow it came by like the speed of light. This was also the closest to a normal school year if it weren’t for the water pipes. Walking into senior year I had a plan. Yes, you heard me right, that freshman that walked in here 3 years ago now has a plan. That plan was to attend a college for Sports Management. This was the year I have been anticipating my whole life. To be done with school, even though I chose to do 4 more years after high school. But on the real note now, Oak Hill has taught me many things throughout my 4 years. But most importantly it taught me to stay strong and to not change who you are. Throughout Covid it was a battle to stay focused mentally and physically for me and I think that without the help from all my friends and teachers I wouldn’t have been able to do it. I don’t know what colleges is going to be like for me, but I know that what I learned from Oak Hill, I am going to take and use it to the best of my abilities to achieve bigger goals in life and show that even though I didn’t have a normal 4 years of high school that not even Covid could stop me from graduating. I hope this motivates you all to go enjoy your life after high school and achieve greater things too. Thank you.

Featured Image: “Face Mask” by shibuya246 is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.