March 13, 2020. 

The world turned upside down.

The day when many people’s “normal” was altered completely. COVID-19 took a lot from us: the people we loved, the places we enjoyed going to, and plenty of experiences we were looking forward to. 

It has been a year of living this lifestyle, masking up whenever we leave the house, finding fun and interesting activities to do while stuck at home, picking up old hobbies and possibly creating new ones. 

But one thing that many people can agree on is that we as a country and as a community missed out on many experiences. 

“I think I speak for a lot of people in the music department, that this year took away what we have been looking forward to since freshman year, the Disney trip,” senior Patrick Rowley said. “It really was a hard situation, considering it happens every four years, we had been waiting a long time for it, and sadly it won’t happen.” 

Students in the music department were not the only ones to miss out on exciting trips. Every year the exchange trips to Italy, Spain and France, coordinated by the World Language department, take place, and of course, students this year will not get to engage in the cultural immersion that these opportunities present.  

Lockdown hasn’t just impacted travel. Many concert tours had to be cancelled or rescheduled due to the pandemic. Artists such as Harry Styles, Billie Eilish and Lady Gaga have either cancelled or postponed their tours. 

“The first place that comes to mind when I think about no restrictions is concert venues because I would love to see live performances and sports games again,” senior Allie Serio said. “I bought tickets to three big concerts [featuring]my favorite artists, one of which was Billie Eilish who was supposed to perform on March 17, 2020 about three days after the lockdown started.”

Like many seniors across the country, Serio bore the burden of being unable to visit colleges and have sport-recruitment opportunities, an important aspect of the college selection process.

“I had college showcases and tournaments planned for field hockey in order to get recruited and meet coaches,” Serio said. “Like many others I also missed the opportunity to visit many of the schools I applied to.”

As the US continues to prepare for heavier roll-outs of the COVID-19 vaccine, many hope for a brighter future in which everyone can get and feel a sense of normalcy. Everyone hopes the things we missed out on are on our horizon. But we must remember, though we look back and see everything that we missed out on, we must not take for granted that we are still here. Some have not been that lucky.