A Glass Half Full: Pandemic Causes Minton to Focus on The Positive
Wilkes Central student re-evaluates some things during unique senior year.
By AMIE KNOWLES
MORAVIAN FALLS — He originally described himself as a bit of a pessimist, but the global pandemic had a life changing effect on 18-year-old Wilkes Central High senior Harley Minton.
“Back before, I guess you could say I was a glass-half-empty kind of guy,” Minton said.
On the outside, it appeared the young adult had everything going for him. Minton represented Wilkes County at the State Science Fair with a thrilling exhibition of Bernoulli’s principle, was a member of the National Honor Society, Beta Club, Latin Club and swim team. He was even a page at the NC Senate and a junior marshal for last year’s graduation. He also got accepted into a prestigious college.
But personally, Minton sometimes struggled to connect with others. Particularly in classroom discussions, the intelligent, yet humble, teenager said he kept his opinions more to himself and listened to the other students engage in conversation.
When the 12th grader first learned that he’d be out of school for a couple of weeks in March, he shrugged it off. As the first 14 days came to an end with no official plan to return to the classroom in sight, Minton still fully expected to return to the normal aspects of high school before the year ended.
“To be honest with you, I honestly didn’t think that school would be ever be closed here. I was kind of expecting us to go back maybe in another two weeks — that was the original plan. But after they extended it again, I thought, ‘Eh, maybe we’ll be out for another two weeks,’” Minton said. “I never expected it to be the end of the semester in general. Well, not the end of the semester, but the end of face-to-face.”
Finality Starts to Set In
As the weeks went by, Minton paid attention to the COVID-19 media coverage, both nationally and locally. That’s when the finality of his senior year set in.
“I think it was around, like, when we started getting a decent amount of cases here, I figured it was done,” Minton said. “We’d seen what it’d done in Seattle and what it was doing in New York. I figured we didn’t want to risk that.”
The senior noted that previously being enrolled in online courses helped him navigate the changes. In his final semester, three of his classes were already online through Wilkes Community College, so adapting to the high school’s virtual format wasn’t much different from what he was already used to.
One aspect did change, though, and it was a big one. Meeting with his teachers and classmates through Zoom, Minton attended his fourth period Civics class. Minton expressed that it was a class that he already enjoyed attending with a teacher and peers he liked being around, but rather than absorbing the various opinions of other classmates, the senior actively participated in the online discussions.
“I kind of came out of my shell in our Civics class. For example, like whenever we engaged in discussion about interpreting the Constitution, I found out that I really liked that kind of stuff,” Minton said. “If we would have stayed in the classroom setting, I probably wouldn’t have ever really talked about it that much and come out of my shell.”
The virtual high school class gave Minton a new perspective, which started filling his metaphorical cup.
“Like the teachers and stuff, they were extremely flexible during these last couple of months. Like, they really helped out with work,” Minton said. “I have a hard time talking to some teachers in person, but being able to talk one-on-one to them through Zoom or through email helped me a lot. It helped me kind of maybe absorb a little bit more. I mean, I always learned a lot in my classrooms, but it helped out a little bit.”
The 12th grader also noted that his parents and friends were helpful and understanding. His mother, who also worked from home some days during the height of the pandemic, would schedule her job around Minton’s classes. His classmates stepped up to the plate when he had questions about submitting assignments.
“This last semester has kind of shown me to make the best out of things, or at least try to make the best out of things,” Minton said. “Sometimes, it can actually turn out to be good.”
While he enjoyed the change in the learning format, there were other aspects of his senior year that Minton expressed that he wished could’ve played out normally.
Although the seniors still received awards, the ceremony was held online. And while they got their yearbooks, they weren’t signed with lasting memos from their friends. The year also ended before prom and many spring sports.
“I’m kind of sad that I didn’t get to experience some of those things,” Minton said.
However, the student praised Wilkes Central’s creativity in another area.
“The school tried to fill in some of the stuff that they could, like caps and gowns. We kind of got to do like a little drive-thru thing. It was pretty good. We just kind of pulled up and got our yearbooks and stuff like that,” Minton said. “When we drove through, they had all of the staff there and they were just congratulating all of the students that went by. That was pretty unique.”
While the district has plans in place for a traditional graduation later this summer, with the constantly changing landscape of the COVID-19 pandemic, arrangements are tentative at best. If the day he received his cap and gown turns out to be his graduation ceremony, Minton’s chosen to look at it optimistically — one might even say with a glass-half-full mentality.
“I look at it like this: unless they do this next year, we had a drive-thru graduation and I guess that’s something unique to tell people,” Minton said.
In the fall, the 2020 grad will attend Western Carolina University’s Honor College, where he plans to study pre-nursing. Eventually, he hopes to become a nurse anesthetist and return to the Wilkes area to treat those in his hometown community.
Want to read more of Harley’s story or others like his? NWNC’s 2020 Wilkes County Graduation Yearbook is out now. It’s 72 pages of full color material, all dedicated to the Class of 2020. You can order a copy by emailing martha@nwncmagazine.com.
