School for me has always been a positive environment where I talk to all my friends and form relationships while maintaining a good academic status. This all changed when online school commenced leading to a long series of trial and error trying to find the best way to learn at home. Ever since the first week of virtual learning back in March, I’ve been dying to get back in the building for in person classes. I was beyond thrilled when it was announced that Sion was going to be one of the only schools in the metro providing students with 100% in person learning while still providing the option of being a distance learner if you so please. 

The first day of junior year felt like Kindergarten all over again. I woke up rested and excited to be back to a new “normal.” In my mind, masks, temperature checks and social distancing are all just a small price to pay to be able to come in everyday and pick up our lives where they left off in March. Coming in on that first day and getting to see everyone I hadn’t seen in almost six months brought me so much joy and it still does even now an entire quarter into the year. 

With a year full of new beginnings, I thought to myself over the summer “When will there ever be a better opportunity to try something new?” and concluded that I would be joining the cross country team this season. While it was rough at first trying to keep up with the team after not going to any summer running practices, I eventually worked hard enough to get in shape and run distances I never thought I would be running. I made good relationships on the team and was feeling really good about my decision to run this year until I started having pain in my shins after the third meet. After an extended break from practice and the pain still being prevalent, I had x-rays taken and found out I had a stress fracture in my right fibula and would be out for the rest of the season. This was clearly an obstacle I was not expecting to encounter this quarter, but wearing my boot during the school day for the past few weeks has helped immensely.

Academics have been fairly steady this quarter so far, especially for being my junior year. In fact, they have been easier than the end of last year since I am learning in person. Besides all the teachers causing a crazy test frenzy the last week of this quarter, my classes have been manageable and I am still awaiting for those junior year academic struggles everyone was scaring me about this summer. Also, in preparation for college applications next year, I feel a lot more motivation to get my work done well. 

Although this year has been rocky in so many different ways, I definitely appreciate the fact that school is something consistent and (almost) normal in my life. I am trying to make it a priority throughout this year to keep myself balanced and in the right headspace in order to succeed in the constantly changing aspects of my life.