How Did I Get Here?
By Ava Ward, Denver, Colorado, United States
A lot can happen in a year — a cure is found, you learn a new skill, you reach a milestone, or maybe you just age. In my case, I reached a milestone that allowed me to call myself an adult.
At the start of the pandemic, I was 16 years old. I spent the latter end of my second semester at school trading in my pencils for computer mice and my notebooks for google docs. We had been told the lockdown would temporarily remove us from campus until the end of March, allowing us to meet with friends and family for the extended break. We joked about not returning to school after the lockdown but we clearly made our jokes too soon. Our two-week break turned into a year, and our vision of our final year in secondary school became a dream we never thought would come true.
Before the outbreak of COVID-19, my family had moved into an apartment out of our childhood home. The apartment was supposed to be a temporary living space until we found a new home to reside in, but this three-month staycation turned into a year and a half of mandated isolation. I learned to soak up the sun on our 3 by a 5-foot deck that overlooked our neighborhood. My sister and I would take turns riding our mom’s bike around the neighborhood on nice days. We would walk our dogs around the neighborhood to see if we could run into our friends or spend some time away from our screens. We waved down to our friends as they passed through the street below our deck and watched as the parade of cars full of 2020 graduates drove by last May. Going into our final year of secondary school, my sister and I were unsure about what the next year would look like.
In May of 2020, we had our 17th birthday, which we celebrated with our two dogs, my significant other, and our mother. We celebrated inside with movies, delicious food, and loving messages from friends and family. While the day itself was full of love and celebration, we felt saddened by the idea that we would spend our last year as children in quarantine. It felt as if we were grounded, no boyfriends, no friends, and nowhere to go. At least when you’re grounded you have an idea of when your freedom will return and when you can play in the street again. The idea of feeling carefree and sunburnt was a feeling we were desperate to return to.
The final year of secondary school in the US is an important year full of tradition and excitement. We waited patiently to hear from our school about which rituals we could continue, but unfortunately, they foresaw many challenges with safety. We were luckily able to have our prom, our graduation, and many small activities with members of our graduating class. These activities were smaller, more creative, thrown together at the last minute, and filled with uncertainty. Our prom was hosted outdoors with masks, food trucks, and a rotating system of activities to prevent congregating. This event was much smaller than graduation but both were hosted outside and required masks and limited numbers. The hardest part of planning graduation was selecting which family members could attend based on each graduate’s allotted number of tickets. Despite a year of challenges, the only tears shed on this day were tears of joy and pride.
We spent all the time we could with our friends before we all parted ways for college, and each time we got more creative than the last. Without the ability to be closer than six feet from each other, we found ways to be apart but together. My favorite memory from this period was a day where my friends and I met after virtual school in the parking lot on our campus. We parked in a circle with our car trunks open and facing each other where we all sat and talked until it became dark. We decided to enjoy the last few minutes of sunlight in the gymnasium’s grass field, which ended with us showing off our poor gymnastic skills on all sides of the field.
Another year rolled by and now my sister and I are 18, the legal age in the US where you are seen and treated as an adult. We traded play dates for working and playing in the street to planning for college. The final year of childhood has passed and now we are learning about responsibility and living on our own. We will not see the total implications of what the lockdown has done to our society for many years, but I know that I was changed in many ways. I feel as though my childhood was cut short due to the pandemic, but because of it, I feel I will be a more mature and organized adult.
