We all have those days, don’t we? Those days where we reminisce.

However, I’ve been thinking about something different from usual recently.  It has been about a year since “Spring Break but a week longer”. And I think back to that last day. Most of the time when people think about days like that, they remember their routine, the day exactly as it was planned. I don’t remember most of that. I remember that I was at baseball practice, discussing the Arizona trip that the varsity guys would go on during Spring Break. I was talking to Anton Akse (11), and Tate Christian (11) had just rubbed some ‘Icy-Hot’ on my cheek as a joke. And I heard Tyler Maloney (10) say something as we’re getting ready to go home. “Good news! We got Spring Break early!” Looking back, I feel stupid for feeling happy about it, but I couldn’t help myself. I thought it would be maybe a month at most. I remember nobody being worried about it. Everyone was still making grand summer plans. I was still planning on having my first birthday party with my friends in three years for my “Sweet” 16th. Looking back, it makes me depressed as hell, man. I even predicted back in January at a Forensics meet that the new virus out of Wuhan would be something. Understatement of the century, ‘innit’?

I should have known better.

Should we have taken it more seriously? I mean, probably. But there was no way for us to know. How was I supposed to know that a year later, it wouldn’t have gone away? And so much has happened over the past year. From “Tiger-King” and Carole Baskin (she definitely killed her ex-husband), to “The Last Dance”, all the way to sea-shanties.

It’s just sad. We lost so much.

I wasn’t able to watch the senior parade last year because of scheduling. I missed the last chance to see some of the people that helped make last year great, and I am still mad at myself about that. My mental nerves are shot because I’m always nervous about getting the call about getting quarantined. Because if I get quarantined, then half the school gets quarantined, not because I’m extremely reckless; but I do so much with other people who do a lot. The anxiety about another outbreak, and all of us going home again is too much on some days, and it makes it hard to sleep some nights.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel, yes; but most of us won’t get there until June, July, or even August. My heart tells me that everything is going to be ok, and that we will be fine. But what about the seniors’ last year and this year who had their farewell tour ruined? What about the freshman who have no idea what high school SHOULD be like because of this? What about the juniors who know that we are tantalizingly close to being back to normal, who want to be able to celebrate the seniors and help the freshman, but can’t properly? Thinking in the grand scheme of things, I feel almost selfish for thinking about this. People are dying and I am worried about working from home.

Poor baby.

But, with how close we are to normal, I am scared. I am scared that we’ll get a repeat of October and get sent home again. I am absolutely terrified of going months without seeing my friends again, and I cannot even fathom another year of this. But, it’s all going to be ok. Eventually, I will be able to hug my friends without fear again. We will meet up at a restaurant to do a team bonding session, without having to pretend we coincidentally arrived at the same time. I can bring a friend to my Grandparent’s house and not worry. Ideally, that is what this past year SHOULD have been like. Unfortunately, we rarely get the ideals in life, but in the near future, life may just be like that again. And after the past year, I got only one thing to say.

That was one crappy spring break. 

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS:  Tell The Prospector about your “Year that Changed Everything”.  We are accepting photography, art, video, poetry, etc.  Email digital submissions to mshsprospector.org.