Dear Future Eli,

When you think ahead into your future you never can imagine something like what you went through in 2020. I never could even comprehend the fact that you would be taking classes from home for two months and be alone besides the few interactions with family each day. It seemed at the time to be strictly a negative thing. But there are other sides to the pandemic that people have not yet thought about. Life won’t be the same and this is shaping the future.

When normal life is going on and people have their daily routines that they follow, they seem to take things for granted. I know from now on that going out to dinner is not a just a place to eat, but a place to social with family and friends. Human interaction is such a big part of our lives and we seem to feed off of the energy of other people. Never turn down the opportunity to make memories. It never seemed possible before to miss spring break and as bad as it sounds, that was a tragedy for me. I don’t vacation very often and this was one of my few chances that I didn’t get to have.

Another huge lesson that has helped me is learning to manage my time. It’s not as easy to do class work when your Xbox and phone are in the same building as you. I struggled a lot at the beginning to not put off work until later, which always turned into rushing in my work. But lately it’s been so much easier because I’ve forced myself to put away any distractions that are making this process harder.

As a teenager I’m still young and quite naive to relationships. Lately I’ve realized how important family is and it goes beyond just living with each other. These people are the people that we know the most, we can connect with them the easiest and they are always there for me. Spending time with both my parents is getting me to see other sides to them besides the disciplinary side. My dad and I have a lot in common and talk about things we never used to.

Another one of the most important lessons I learned was to appreciate going to St. X. I realize that without it I can’t see my friends every day and go to practice with them. I can be in an environment where I know I’m on my path to success. It’s good to be under constant pressure and I want to take more advantage of it. I have been more motivated to do my school work and I want to be back in an environment like that. We all are trying our best to continue schooling as it was, but it’s not the same as it is in the classroom. It’s easier for me to under appreciate my teachers more when I’m in class with them. Together it’s much easier to learn when we have people helping us at all times.

Looking back on this I hope you can take what you learned and changed to the new times. The term YOLO might be pretty stupid, but it does have some truth to it. We need to take full advantage of everything we are a part of on a daily basis. These interactions are what mold us into becoming the people we become. It’s weird to think that you are going to be a junior next year, but it’s not like you are not prepared. It’s just a matter of if you want to succeed and how much you are willing to work for it. This pandemic was a challenge and now with this break go out and excel with a new motivation. There’s only one way to rise out of the damage the pandemic put on us and it’s to help each other out. So make sure you always help others along the way.

From,

Sophomore Eli.