The freshman experience was a high school staple up until COVID-19 rocked the world. Now each year brings new and ever-changing beginnings to some of the most memorable years of our lives.
“I was barely learning what high school was like and finally got into a solid schedule and our entire world was turned upside down.” Explains Grace Doyle, a Prairie Alum who was a freshman when COVID hit. Grace’s expectations of high school were completely inaccurate because COVID was not in her original plans, “COVID shut us down in March…obviously no one was prepared for that.”
Grace wasn’t the only person who felt blindsided by COVID her freshman year though, PHS senior Paige Hall who was only one grade behind Grace shares, “I felt like I fell behind socially and mentally since my whole freshman year was unexpectedly behind a screen.”
Things began to change up even more starting with the class of 2025 going into their freshman year. They were the first freshman class returning to in-person classes, only this time we were all returning in masks.
Masks made it difficult for many students to grow socially and get out of their comfort zones. When speaking to Clara Kapelka, a junior at Prairie, I asked what she would change about her freshman year. She shared, “I would say being more outgoing and worrying less about what others thought.” During our discussion, she also expressed “I think I didn’t get to experience the traditional freshman experience.”
When asked how her freshman year was different than she expected, her response indicated that the teachers and rules were not how she expected them to be. This is different from how Grace’s year was unexpectedly cut short and how Paige spent hers on a screen, learning from home. It seems like maybe we do begin to move back towards some normalcy.
Finally, I got to speak with Nicholas “Spud” Merrit. Spud was different from all of the other students I interviewed because when I asked this sophomore if he thought COVID-19 impacted him last year as a freshman, he shared that he doesn’t believe it did.
So what does this mean? Is the freshman experience as we once knew it coming back? Or did we lose it for good when we all felt the world rest in 2020? Only time will fully tell.
