It all seemed to be a dream; a wacky, absurd, and totally unreal dream. The idea that we’d have school canceled because of a virus wasn’t taken seriously at all by anyone until we got the message from the school. Most of our teachers that on that day, March 13th, 2020, spoke about how we might need to pack our things up on that fateful Thursday and how we might be taking an early spring break as a result. 

The entire school staff and the SVVSD board had meeting after meeting about what to do and the scout even published an article about the growing concern of COVID-19 and its rise. Then, on that fateful Thursday night, I had gotten done playing video games incredibly late and I thought to just casually check Instagram on my way down to the kitchen. All over everyone’s stories, I saw the screenshots from the official SVVSD website detailing how schools would be closed until the end of spring break. 

Not a single soul could even imagine what was about to hit next and the year we were about to have. So much information was learned, some misinformed, and others totally false, but we all took away many things from the virus. These are some of the stories from different staff and students one year later: 

Emily Noyes, Freshman: 

“I was in an eighth-grade band festival in Longmont when I heard the news and we were getting ready to go back to the middle school to go do a dress rehearsal.” Emily’s experience was one of the craziest considering this is her first year of high school. “Suddenly, Mr. Thomas and some other mom told us out of nowhere that school had just been totally shut down. It didn’t seem real and didn’t really set in until we actually got back to the middle school. I did make sure to hug all of my friends at the middle school before I left that night though.”

“What I’ve learned is that school at home is terrible for me personally. I see some people who are like, ‘I love online school, and doing my school work from home is amazing.’ Not for me though, I enjoy seeing and hearing people talk in person and I also enjoy being around my friends, especially when we’re participating in programs! Coming back to full in person after spring break is definitely going to make me pretty happy.” She said with a confident smile.

Jacob Noyes, Senior:

“Hmmm… Well, I was actually at a concert when we got the email that school was canceled.” He said with a scoff. “I thought to myself, ‘sick! A month-long spring break!’ I didn’t have to set an alarm for the next day which was awesome, and I made sure that I sent a message to my group chat to ask if they heard the same thing. Otherwise, it was pretty normal that night.” He said with a shrug.

“I’ve learned to expect the worst and hope for the best,” Jacob said proudly. “I’ve applied this idea mostly to hybrid because I was really skeptical of the way it would work at first, but it just happened to work out. If you’re expecting the worst, you can’t get disappointed. Outside of school though, I’ve always been wondering when things will fully open up again and I continue to apply that motto that’s burned into my head.”

Mrs. Stuhr, Math Teacher:

“Well, I was frantically trying to come up with a lesson for that Friday because I thought we were going to be online the week before spring break. Then I suddenly got an email saying that the school had been shut down for the day, I was pretty surprised and it all just felt incredibly surreal. It was so confusing and odd because, I mean, nothing like this has ever happened before so I didn’t know what to expect.”

“I’ve realized that I greatly enjoy being an introvert because I can get a lot done when I’m alone and focused. During the first two weeks, I closed on a house and I also did some preparation for online learning. It was pretty stressful not knowing what online learning was going to be like and also trying to figure out how many students were going to participate or not. I’m excited and apprehensive about coming back, not only because I get to see a full classroom again, but at the same time, I have to keep everyone safe and enforce rules like wearing masks properly. It’s bittersweet.”

Justin Valois, Sophomore:

“When I found out that everything was shutting down, I was at the rec center swimming in the pool with my brother, Jake, and a lifeguard came up to us and told us that everything was being shut down. At first, I didn’t take him very seriously, but then my dad called me to say that I could stay out later because I wouldn’t have school for a while. My brother and I both thought it was a pretty crazy situation, but we were actually pretty happy about it at the time.”

“The pandemic has taught me how to adapt to any situation. I think that I should always be prepared for anything to happen, because hey, I don’t even know what’s gonna happen tomorrow. I felt like at first, it was really hard to adapt and I didn’t know how I was going to do this because no one could give advice on this kind of thing, eventually though, I feel like I got the hang of it pretty strongly and I’ve now adapted pretty well.”

Trevor Siders, Junior:

“Nothing special really happened for me, I was just in my B8 English class and I heard the announcement from Mr. Young and I thought, ‘Oh, we’ll just be doing this for a couple of weeks. It’s not really a big deal.’ I was going to go watch my sister’s musical, but that got canceled obviously, so I just decided to play CS: GO to “unwind” and a year later, I’m still playing CS: GO saying it’ll be over soon.”

“What I’ve learned from this situation is that being trapped in my home with nothing else but video games doesn’t make me any better at them. I’m Silver II and I don’t think I’ve improved very much and to be honest with you, I’ve probably gotten a lot worse.” Siders said with a firm laugh, but he did seriously state, “my rank isn’t what matters though, because I have a job and I’m still here to buy in-game cosmetics with my money. So, I guess just the fact that I’m having fun during a very wacky year is important.”

Santos, Dean of Students:

 “For me, I was in my kitchen making dinner, I didn’t think much of it but then I saw an email pop up saying we had been out on spring break early. Even though I was excited to have a longer break, I also knew that this must be pretty serious. I kinda thought to myself and felt my stomach drop thinking, ‘wow, I think I just taught my last class.’ It really sucks that after 20 years of teaching, I didn’t know my last day of teaching would be my last day of teaching.” Mrs. Santos had already accepted her new admin position before COVID hit, so last year was her final year of teaching science class. 

“I think what the pandemic has done is revealed a lot about the human race and how willing we are to protect one another. I personally learned that I should never take a normal day for granted. I think what we all learned on March 13th, 2020 is that our world can be turned upside down in an instant. I really do think some lessons have been taught and I am positive for what’s to come because I think we can prepare a lot better if this happens again. We’ve all learned positive lessons about ourselves and each other.” Mrs. Santos said proudly.

 As seen, no two stories or reactions were alike and everyone had their own learning experience, but as this virus taught all of us, we don’t know what lies on the blank road ahead. Students and staff may be going back to full in person at the end of spring break, but anything could send us back once again. It’s always good to hope for the best that we won’t randomly get a life-changing message randomly at the end of a day. Though, we still aren’t out of the effects of this virus by a long shot, but the will of humans allows us to continue to push on with hopes of returning to even more kinds of normal when it’s time.