Doherty. Home of the Spartans. We have lived within this pandemic for a while, but how much has it stopped? We remain in school. We continue to sleep over at each other’s houses. We continue to hug and enjoy being around each other, but that’s not bad at all. Life is about living and enjoying being social and understanding that no matter what in life, we always have people. That kid in your class that sits by themselves may just need someone to say hello to them or ask them how they’re doing. That one person that you get excited to see every class that you have with them. 

After interviewing a few students, many wanted to remain anonymous, but people like Sam on the track team said that was what motivated him to continue coming to school in the midst of the pandemic. Many other students said that their friends kept them motivated along with hanging out with them during lunch. Another often said the answer was graduating and being the first in their family to graduate. Speaking of graduating, students use this motivation for long-term goals and to be able to get out of bed every day and come into school, but is there more to this? 

My main question is, do people do it for themselves outside of graduating and all of these other reasons, or do we only motivate ourselves because this is just the cycle of life? Go to school for twelve years, graduate, go back to school, and then get a six-figure job and start a family, and then you can retire and finally take time for yourself. Personally, it takes me a while to feel like I want to get out of bed in the morning and get excited to go to school. Unless I think about staying after school for theater or seeing my friends or some teachers, I’m not exactly excited for the long classes, sitting in one place and having to problem solve at 7 in the morning. The thing is though, that is okay. A lot of people get sad a lot and that makes us want to not get out of bed and for the people that have trouble socializing I’m with you. My heart palpitates out of my chest if I talk to new people or if I think too hard about what I could say, but that’s normal. We have normalized that covid made us socially awkward but we were like this before, the pandemic just gave us something to blame it on that is valid and in all seriousness could be a reason why we struggle with talking to people because of how long we were gone from people outside of grocery store runs and spending time with family. 

As a senior, this year has really been crazy hard and an experience to say the least. I’ve cried so many times at just the thought of not doing enough or feeling enough but in all honesty from a wise friend in theater I’ve learned that the truth is: “A new step into life is kinda scary.” I have had many days where I want to just lie in bed and call out of school, but I’ve learned that as long as I want this enough for myself I can make it and something else you must learn just to cope with your own thoughts and validate yourself is, it is okay not to be okay; but never isolate yourself because it is good to be alone sometimes but feeling lonely and not trying to talk to anyone will just keep you in that sadness and it will take longer to grow at all without validating your sadness and then making a change.