From Pete Gawdaís interactions with peopleìDealing with my family 24/7.î Andrianna Hilliard, Falcon ìThe biggest challenge was actually staying home and working with the distractions of family.î Nathan Manor, FalconìThe fact that we had to close down about all our church activities, except worship. However, I think COVID-19 made our church stronger.î Craig Meredith, FalconìIt didn’t affect me at all. I continued to go to work since I work in an office all by myself.î Tom Kerby FFPDìTrying to avoid wearing a mask.î Dan Kupferer FFPDFrom Leslie SheleyìI took the opportunity to reconnect with family and friends that I have not spoken with in a long time, albeit virtually. Mostly it was an opportunity to rethink a lot of things in my life and some of the changes I want to make now that 70 years are nearly behind me.î Steve Murtagh, Black ForestìSelfishness is the new definition of our population and it makes me sad about the meanness we so easily portray towards one another. I wonder if our nation has always been this way. I have struggled with how to interact in this new norm and that has been an impact that will last far longer than the virus will.î JJ Halsey, FalconìI was just one of about 3 people working on my floor. ìWhen I went into the hall, it felt post-apocalyptic. After walking those empty halls it just felt lonely and sad.†After three months of that, I ended up eating all the TV dinners that had been abandoned to freezer-burn in the department freezer.î Ann CushmanìThroughout human history, tragedy and disaster has served to bring people together, but our experience with this COVID pandemic has been vastly different. Fear and desperation drove us apart this time. We are so “advanced” that we donít think we need anyone else; all we need is our own individual rights. My right to not wear a mask, my right to not get vaccinated, my right to buy all the toilet paper and canned food I can haul away. And I am sad to my core that community has been sacrificed on the altar of self.îSheryl Salter, FalconìMy take away has been to love more, respect others for their choices (even when they are different from our own) Ö be a listening ear to friends and/or strangers. Not that I didnít try to practice all those, but the situation at hand made me more aware/intentional with my choices.î Deb Putney, FalconAva Stoller talked to seniors who graduated this year.Nate Nass: ìWhat affected me the most was having to wear masks. It was really hard to stay in school because I have asthma and having a mask on I couldnít stay in school. So, I ended up going online, and that made it harder to keep up my grades, which made it harder to stay eligible for football.îMarcus Jackson: ìThe lack of sports and a social climate everyday. I went from having school three days a week and football everyday to having none of that. Also classes on Zoom, previously I was able to pay attention, talk to people, relax, and kind of listen secondarily. Then, I had to pay full attention in Zoom classes, which isnít good for me because I need lots of things for my brain to focus on. So, focusing on just the lesson made it really hard to learn stuff.îKylie Vetromile: ìHonestly, not much affected me. I was still able to work my job almost the same way without COVID. I was still able to see the person I was in a relationship with, we were still able to hang out, although a little differently, we switched it up a bit and went hiking or to DutchBros, things like that. I did graduate early but that was because I was trying to join the military.îChristian McIntosh: ìMy mentality ó just because humans are creatures that need attention toward each other, so not seeing or hearing anybody just made me feel like I was abandoned. School was heavily affected, I did not do well during any of my last semester. I also wasnít able to go to some of my classes that needed to be in person, during COVID.î
