When COVID hit, I felt as though many of us children were in shock. Personally, I believe that shock is still occurring to us today. Following the original virus, there were many variants that hit the nation. So how did COVID affect us as students, as admin, and as a community in general?

I spoke to sophomore Karen Lopez, and she mentioned how COVID made her anti-social. How it was still difficult being introverted. She told me about how her social life had really affected her during COVID. To be honest that’s the case for most of us students.

I then talked to Mayor, Nancy Young, who spoke with me for a good amount of time about how COVID affected the community and her family. She mentioned her effort in trying to keep parks and playgrounds open to the public. When I asked her how COVID affected her personally, she said, “When you think of sickness or anything that affects multiple people it’s beyond yourself. So even if I’m sick or someone around me is sick I have to push beyond myself.” She then went on to talk about how it affected businesses. She said, “I saw many people frustrated because they couldn’t get out and connect.”

Finally, I spoke with a West High teacher, David Haut. When I asked him how COVID affected him as a teacher he said, “Negatively, the amount of anxiety and stress that it put on me was unfortunate.” He then said his teaching has gone back to where it was before the pandemic, but he’s still trying to get students back into the routine of turning in work and being responsible for their grades, especially because students got used to turning in work online and he primarily uses paper for his math work assignments.

COVID has negatively affected us as a community, but I believe if we come together and help each other build plans for our futures we can succeed tremendously.