Forever changed
Forever changed
COVID-19 has completely changed the way we live our lives . . . our campus is closed, our classes are online and we are all at home. Even though this pandemic will eventually come to an end and we will return to school, the lasting effects of COVID-19 will leave a permanent mark on our world, our country and 10600 Preston Rd.
A “normal” set of 365 days in the life of a Marksman brings its own bouts and bursts of excitement and ecstasy, of trials and tribulations and of ups and downs and lefts and rights and twists and turns and everything in between.
Of tests and exams and touchdowns and goals and As and Fs and Ws and Ls and of grand openings and sudden closings and gold strikings and silver linings and blood, sweat and tears.
Of the ebbing and flowing of the very things that divide us and then unite us closer than ever before.
A “normal” year is something we take for granted all too often, even if there is no such thing as a “normal” year.
But this one feels different.
From a distant perspective, one can divide this last year into the headline events of each season: fall saw the destruction –– and subsequent reconstruction –– of the Oct. 20 tornado. Winter saw the school’s historic takeover of SPC. And now in spring, we see a nationwide quarantine and an abrupt halt to classes amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“It's been a hard year,” Headmaster David Dini said. “We can't even seem to catch a break in some ways. On the other hand, you constantly have to remind yourself of how fortunate we are and how much opportunity we have and how many blessings we enjoy.”
The tests brought on by this year’s events gave us an even greater opportunity to display our character as a school, according to Dini.
“If you study history and you look at the great figures in history,” Dini said, “almost always, those great people are people that thrive in very, very difficult times. They lead people often against great odds through terrible strife and great difficulty.”
While quarantine might represent loss for many Marksmen — loss of the third trimester, loss of end-of-year traditions or loss of time with friends — it is important to remember that many people in our country have lost much more — job security, good health or even their loved ones.
“I know kids are having hardships because of jobs and family,” Freshman Class President Aadi Khasgiwala said, “but, all in all, we’re going to look back at this pandemic and recognize if we were able to get through that, we can face anything.”
To stave off boredom and bolster class unity during quarantine, each Upper School grade has been organizing virtual class activities in some shape or form. From class Kahoot games to grade-wide Zoom calls, Upper Schoolers have done their best to keep in touch.
“I hope we can keep doing these zoom calls,” Junior Class President Aayan Khasgiwala said. “It’s nice to see everyone’s faces. School’s coming to a close, so it’ll be harder to see everyone, but we’ll find creative ways to stay in touch.”
While the freshman class has stayed in touch with each other, they miss the interactions they would have had with older classes.
“As a freshman grade, we’re obviously still figuring things out,” Aadi said, “and I think with school cancelled, we missed out on the opportunity of looking up to the seniors, juniors and sophomores for leadership, whether in classes or sports or clubs. We were really looking forward to that, and, looking back, that might be something we wish we had.”
Distance learning, a novel form of remote schooling brought on by the sudden need for social distancing, has spawned unforeseen challenges. Among the many drawbacks of this kind of remote learning — the lack of face-to-face interaction with both instructors and classmates. But for Sophomore Class President Enoch Ellis, this time away gives us a chance to reflect on our own lives outside of the school.
“We live such busy lives,” Ellis said, “and we don't give ourselves time to just stand still and contemplate how we're doing, what we're feeling and who we talk to. Quarantine has been an outlet for us to further explore who we are, and hopefully after this we will come back with a renewed sense of self.”
The loss of that human interaction certainly does serve as a painful reminder of those special moments we used to share together throughout each day whether during a free period, class or extracurricular. For Aayan, the concept of grade unity strengthens those connections we wouldn’t otherwise have maintained in isolation.
“We’re so restricted that we talk mostly to our close friends,” Aayan said, “so it’s important to stay connected as a grade. It’s important to stay in touch with the people we care about, especially because it’s high school, and it’s our junior year, one of our hardest years.”
The formation of sub-communities and friend groups is, of course, natural at any school. But the nature of being in a physical location usually mitigates this fractionalization and reminds us of our greater community. Some of this is lost in isolation.
“In times like this, people are naturally going to go to their close friend groups,” Ellis said. “But I think it's even more important to try to talk to new people during this time since we have so much more time now.”
While grade-wide events help mitigate that sense of isolation, it’s still important for students to intentionally break out of these smaller groups and stick together during these difficult times.
“It’s important to share with each other,” Aayan said, “because it makes us stronger as a class –– it makes us more unified rather than more individualized, which could easily happen when everyone goes into their own hole and doesn’t talk to anyone. The more we can stay in touch as a grade, the more unified we will be when we come out of this.”
So no matter what each student or teacher does during this time, whether it’s picking up a new hobby, finding innovative ways to take online classes or simply staying strong as America braves each new challenge COVID-19 brings, it’s a chance for everyone to grow.
“Through adversity we've had an opportunity to learn, grow and show a lot of strength and a lot of resilience” Dini said. “And to me, that's the great takeaway from the year, which is not that we've experienced difficulty or challenge, it's the response to the challenge that is inspiring and encouraging.”
As the 2019-2020 school year comes to a close, everyone will have a different story to tell, a different favorite moment, a different challenge conquered. But it will be remembered.
“I'll remember it as a time where we've gotten to see how variable life can be,” Ellis said. “How you can be at the top of the hill one moment and at the bottom of the valley the next moment, and how you have to have something innate within you that grounds you, and you can't put too much value on any one thing, because the next day, it might be gone, and then you're nothing without it.”
And while these valleys may be some of the deepest the school has ever experienced, students have continued to climb their way back out time and time again.
“I think everyone would have been okay if certain things like McDonald’s Week weren’t as good as they would’ve been without the disasters,” Aayan said, “but we wanted it to be even better. We face all these challenges head-on rather than see them as an excuse. I don’t hear anything about how we’re going to slack off and take it easy. This is a chance to get our grades up, to make ourselves better students with better grades at the end of the year.”
While we may worry now about whether or not 10600 Preston Rd. will return to normal, when we look back years from now, we’ll see that everything turned out alright.
“When we have the opportunity to go back and carve the record, if you will, from 2019-2020, I think we'll say, ‘Wow! That's a year where the school really shone brightly,’" Dini said, “and ‘We didn't get weaker. We got stronger.’ And to me that's a tremendous message and again adversity delivers that to you. You see it in our lives. I've had it in my life. You have had it and will have it in your life too. Sometimes it takes a little bit of distance to appreciate the value of that adversity because when you're going through it, it can be painful.”
At the end of the COVID-19 crisis, when six feet become zero and 10 a.m. becomes 8:30 a.m., all that will remain are the memories of what we did and the lessons that we’ve learned along the way.
“Even when we're back full-time on campus and routine is completely re-established, all those pieces are still going to come with us,” Dini said. “All that growth, both from the student's side and from the teacher's side. It’s not just academic preparation. It's like we always say — it's content and character in equal parts.”