This school year never had a dull moment with covid, election, and my graduation year. I am very excited to graduate May 22, but I am a little sad because this school year was very different and I couldn’t have many senior experiences. We had a homecoming and prom, but it wasn’t the same. I felt very limited on the things I could do because of covid, but being able to go was still very nice.

The beginning of the year I was in person and I would say school felt very empty with about half of every grade being online. Lunch was weird with little to no seniors being in the NAC either because they were off campus or they were online. However, being able to go off campus as a senior was a very nice privilege.

This year, Northland was supposed to perform the musical Newsies, but because at the time so many grades and people were going into quarantine, the musical was called off. I was very saddened to hear this because it was the first year I grew courage to be in the musical, and it was canceled.

In November, the presidential election happened. It was a close race with Joe Biden and Donald Trump, but in the end, Biden won. Some people were happy, and some were angry then said the election was rigged, but either way, Biden is now president.

In January, I went to the state swim meet, where I swam 100 breaststroke and 200 Individual Medley. After state, I switched to online school due to my mother needing some surgeries. My family did not want to risk getting covid and giving it to her while she’s in recovery, and I am now finishing the year online. However, I still went to prom at the Downtown Aquarium because it will be the only time I’ll be able to go, and my mom is vaccinated now, so we are less worried.

I would say that I like doing school online better, because I can work at my own pace. While in person, you only have the time given in class to work on your assignments until you get home, but online you can work on other things during another class because either the teacher let you log off the meeting or you finished work for that class two days earlier. I feel like there is more time to work on things online because I can multitask, which is something I can’t do while in person.

The thing I am most excited for and the only thing left that is coming up is graduation! I am so excited to graduate high school and move onto my next stage of life, which is college. I plan on going to Lone star for two years, then transferring to Sam Houston to study music therapy. Music therapy is a type of therapy to address physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs of individuals. It is also a good type of therapy for those who cannot fully say their emotions with words, so they express them through music.

I asked senior Marcos Bell what his favorite memory from this school year was and he said, “My favorite part of the school year are the last couple of days because everything is slowing down and the demand on homework is lightening up a lot. I also get to spend more time with family and do the things I like while still doing school.”

In conclusion, this school year has been filled with many memories for everyone, whether they were online or in person. I am very excited to graduate but I will miss my friends and Northland Christian School.