SENIOR SPOTLIGHT: Getting Through the Hard Times

Imagine it’s your senior year. All you want is to roll through an easy year, graduate and move on with your life. Unfortunately some seniors, like Kayla Lorimer, don’t have it so easy. “This year, I pretty much lost all motivation to do anything.” Kayla went throughout her whole high school career without taking a health class, which is one of the first classes you take, and now she has to do the extra work in order to graduate.

For a lot of seniors, having to take a lower level class or having to retake a class is hard. It causes you to have to take a step back, or so it feels like. Going to these classes in person is a struggle in and of itself, but this year we were all given the ‘hard to swallow pill’ of COVID-19 and online classrooms. “I probably struggled the most with my online classes. I originally was taking health and a trigonometry class, but learning from home and forcing myself to do it on my own time never worked. I eventually gave up on my trig class and left my health class to the very last minute.” The struggle is real, and is felt by every student and teacher in the school.

Not only is it hard to work from home, it’s hard to work around other people all the time. “I think the worst part about all of this happening while I’m stuck at home is that my little sisters are also doing their classes at home.” Siblings can be the worst, especially when you’re constantly having to hear them get praise after you just got punished, “they’re perfect children and can do no wrong. I get yelled at for not doing enough work.” Kayla also says working from home is hard because they have limited internet access. “My mom has the wifi set up so that we only have seven hours if wifi a day.” This makes it especially hard since the internet is the only way to do school now. Limited time just means more stress, and more stress means less work, and the vicious cycle continues. 

Kayla’s story is shared by the majority of students at FHS. We all feel the repercussions of online school and it’s hard for all of us, especially in cases like Kayla’s where we have classes we need to make up that just feel like they’re wasting our time. The problem with online, is it feels like it’s optional, when it’s completely mandatory. Luckily, Kayla had help, “Mr. Brown has actually helped a lot. He is always reminding us of work in other classes and that really helps me not procrastinate as much as I might’ve and helped me remember to turn things in.” In any situation, it’s better to have someone help you than to try to do it on your own.

Now, Kayla says she’s finished with health and back on track and is looking for a new work ethic next semester, “I want to get ahead of the procrastination next semester and work out a more solid schedule for myself.” She’s also produced some good work, like her amazing audition video that can be found on her Instagram that she did this year for her Thespian society.

Going into next semester, let’s remind ourselves that we are here for a reason: to learn and then to make it out. It’s hard, but having a plan and some help will make a huge difference. Kayla, like many others, has been dealt a bad hand, and has had to work through some pretty taxing conditions, but nevertheless pulled through and made it work. This year shouldn’t be about how well you do on something, but rather about how hard you tried. Kayla worked her tail off and pulled through for herself and her diploma. Remember that no matter what grades you end up with, if you did your best, then you succeeded.