Reset and Restart by Samantha

Reset and Restart by Samantha - December 2024 Scholarship Essay

For what felt like the longest time I was lumped with the same students I had been for years—kindergarten to seventh grade. I would grow up with these people, get my driver's license, cruise around with my friends, hang around under streetlights in the late hours, graduate high school with them, and keep in contact as we all drift down different paths. Except this didn’t happen. I grew up mostly in Marysville. Separated districts but normally with the same people I have known since Kindergarten. Yet, this didn’t happen. I went online and then to a new high school. COVID had already dealt damage to my last year in Marysville, but moving online stifled me, so picking myself back up became the new challenge.
I was in seventh grade when COVID hit. Our science and history teacher liked to play CNN’s Carl Azuz for us, believing it was important for us to be aware of current world events. For around three weeks we had been receiving COVID updates when it was announced Marysville Public Schools were going under lockdown, working online. Public schools weren’t prepared for the shift, and most of my classes had to simplify lessons to the point I barely remember most of them. Some were barely possible. At the very least I could text friends and remain in the loop, keeping connections close, until my mom told me we would be leaving. She was leaving her current fiance for a man I had seen a few times in my childhood. Although my feelings now are calmer, I was angry at the time. Stressed at the idea that after the school year, I would have to restart at some unknown place for what felt like a stupid reason. I only had the rest of the school year to say goodbyes, to pack up and leave, yet due to COVID my only method of bye was text. Texts that faded away into nothingness. A string so easily broken once I couldn’t be physically present. I couldn’t even get the art from my art class, not that there was a lot, but it’s a time of my life I can’t retrieve. After the move was finalized COVID still raged on. It didn’t make sense to put me in a physical building unprepared for a possible year online, so I was placed in an online school.
When I was young the idea of online schooling was appealing. Even now some parts of it sound more convenient than in-person school. The reality is it comes at the sacrifice of barely retaining any information. Prior it was already difficult to remember things, something I have always struggled with, but to be in an environment where it was almost entirely listening and no doing put me at a disadvantage. It wasn’t working. Even if I was passing I wouldn’t remember anything learned. My entire eighth-grade year and freshman year were spent staring at a screen hoping somehow something would stick. It simply wasn’t the environment I could thrive in, and I spent two whole years doing it. By the time we moved households in the same city, it was time to return to brick and mortar, but it wasn’t just grades that needed adjustment.
I began attending Allen East High School in 2022. There were several other choices I could have gone with, but I chose Allen East. The decision partially came from my older half-sister having attended the same school in a different building. Apart from my grades, the newest challenge was adjusting to going from a district where I knew everyone to knowing absolutely no one. For my first year, I barely spoke a word unless I had to, and eventually, I made friends, but I barely found a solid spot. Though it was rough trying to remember everything I learned from my years online, I did realize I have a high skill in English and writing, as well as an enjoyment in History. Most of this was due to my first language arts teacher at Allen East, who enjoyed my writing and encouraged me to do more. With this encouragement, I didn’t let the circumstances get to me. I strived to do better in my classes. Socially I eventually found myself more acquainted with my peers. Despite the hardships, I participated in a speech reading, joined clubs, and participated in the high school play.
The hardest part of my school career was moving. Changing around everything I had grown used to, from walkable streets to cornfield oceans, to a friend in every corner to none at all. It was a challenge that I overcame. As much as I didn’t want to move, I stayed positive. Leaving behind what I knew for two years of staring at a screen and finally returning to a physical school was hard, but a challenge that represents how I have come to adjust no matter the situation.