A letter from Jun 10th, 2021

Dear FutureMe, Covid was something no one could have ever predicted, it turned everyone's lives upside down. Over this past year and a half, we have watched the whole world adjust and have been forced to become accustomed to this new normal. This virus practically became a mini war, turning people against each other due to their different opinions and policies regarding this virus and how to take care of it. Every single person was affected by this virus whether it was physically getting sick, losing a loved one to the virus, or just not mentally being stable due to these quick changes. I can't speak for everyone but if I was to take an educated guess, I think more people were affected by the mental aspect of this virus rather than the physical part. I was definitely one of those people, especially as teenagers we are still growing and learning and when we lost everything we had known and our so called ¨best years of our lives¨ it definitely took a major tole on our mental stability. Personally, sports are a huge part of my life and a safe space for me to forget about all my stress so when I lost sports, I wasn't okay. I had nothing to look forward to, every single day was the exact same and I became sick of living this boring repetitive life. The other things I enjoyed besides playing sports were also taken from me like, hanging out with friends, watching sports live or on TV, going to the park, going to concerts and fairs, going out to eat or shopping, the list could go on forever. People were struggling more than ever financially from losing their jobs and it created major panic throughout our country. Our country hasn't seen something like this in a very long time so it all hit us when we weren't expecting and therefore not well prepared. Although the negatives outweigh the positives of this pandemic, if I really tried to think of some things I learned and benefited from this whole experience I could. Personally I learned that most of your ¨friends¨ are only there for convenience and once we're not in school and together everyday, it's like you never knew them. This was something I would have learned once I went to college but I learned it a year early. The main lesson I learned from this pandemic and I'm sure many others would agree with is that we can never take anything for granted. I've been told this for years but I never truly took that to heart until I watched my senior year of high school be taken away from me. I´ve always been the kid who had senioritis since 8th grade and couldn't wait to get out of this building but I grew a lot this past year and realized how much I'd miss seeing all my friends everyday and all the amazing memories I made at school. Sports especially were something I looked forward to my whole life and in a blink of an eye it was all gone. The thought of never playing one last soccer, basketball, or softball game for my high school again was single handedly the worst pain I had ever felt. I would wake up every morning hoping that this was all just a dream but to my disappointment it was reality. I definitely learned this lesson the hard way but I´m thankful that I learned it so early in life and will be able to keep the mentaily of ¨play like it's your last game¨ forever. So to my future self, I hope you're rich but most importantly happy and use some of these lessons that I'm in the process of learning right now to help make you successful.