With UIL abruptly cancelling all sporting events due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many athletes had to say goodbye to the season they thought they would have. For some students, it was their final year of high school, for others they were just getting a taste of what a varsity sport was like, and though sophomore Sailor Todaro still has two years of eligibility to compete, she was leading the pole vaulting team and was prepared to advance through the post season.

Dear Future Historian,
If, for some reason, you are searching for evidence of what it was like for the average person during the COVID-19 lockdown and you have stumbled across this article, let me tell you some things that will make your job a little easier.

Asthma is a relatively common disease. In many instances, it is mild, and people can get by with using an inhaler when the need arises. For senior Phoebe Hancock, asthma has taken a much larger role in her life. She suffers from severe allergic asthma, meaning her reactions are mostly caused by her allergies. Combatting this disease and its side effects has meant countless visits to the doctor, numerous tests, and even a few operations.

With social distancing orders in place, many extracurricular activities require coaches and directors to take a different approach to creating a team for the 2020-2021 school year.

When the baseball coaches and players realized that students would not be returning to the classroom this school year, they felt it was important to do something to connect with the community. Individuals on the team created videos of themselves wearing their Viking jerseys and reading their favorite children’s book aloud. “Read with the Vikes” became a regular post that many families looked forward to.

Over Spring Break, Bryan ISD learned they would need an option to ensure instruction despite the COVID-19 pandemic causing the world to screech to a standstill. 

One of the first things that they wanted to do was get at least one device in every household. They approached the problem by first identifying how many households there are in the district: 8,972. Then they looked at how many Chromebooks they could pull from campuses and determined that 9,068 devices could be used. 

“Watching my dad get shot and die in front of me when I was three still traumatized me because I didn’t have him growing up. I never had a dad to throw a ball with, never had a dad to talk about girls with, it’s just always been me and my grandma.”

Senior Deion Johnson experienced a difficult life from the start, but he has found a way to succeed by relying on people who love him and pushing himself to try new things. After his dad was killed when he was little, his grandmother took him in and raised him as her own.

Serving over 19,000 meals per week when school is not in session is a daunting task that the food and nutrition services department in BISD has handled with love, care, and consideration of all involved in the process.

The art of writing letters has been replaced by grammatically lacking text messages and snapchat videos. Society uses phones and email to send a message in mere seconds. For the students in the 18+ program, which helps students continue to learn life skills after they graduate from high school through the special education department, experiencing the same social interactions that other students do can sometimes be difficult.

The dozens of pictures taken daily on phones can make people lose sight of the skill photography requires. With photographers needing to learn abilities ranging from staging to exposure to shutter speed, along with many terms most people have never heard before, photography is a complex art. SkillsUSA allows students in photography, in addition to other disciplines, to showcase their abilities. At this year’s SkillsUSA competition, senior Laura Salazar competed in photography where her submission featured a patio home building with unique architecture from Florida to earn third place and advance to state.

Earning a spot in the all-state choir is a prestigious accomplishment that only the top seven vocalists in each voice part are awarded each year. Senior Claire Beesaw earned third chair all-state mixed choir soprano and senior Abby Surley was selected as ninth chair (1st runner-up) for all-state treble choir.

Prom, graduation, saying goodbyes, and more are things the class of 2020 are missing out on in their final year of high school due to COVID-19. Though most seniors will eventually be able to go to the makeup prom and graduation, some won’t have any of the special traditions to attend to. To help, teachers and parents are celebrating the class online.