Summer in Place: Volleyball & Vampires

Q: What have you been doing over the summer?

A: I've just been staying at home, but my volleyball club has started practices, so I've been going to that. I’ve been taking a lot of classes and trying to volunteer as much as I can, because I have so much time now and I can't really hang out with anybody. I also actually applied for the Stanford pre-collegiate camp that’s online. I used to paint a lot and then I kind of forgot about it during freshman year, but I started again, and I’ve been painting in this little book and trying to fill it up with a bunch of paintings. I just finished “The Vampire Diaries,” and I’m watching “Criminal Minds” [on Netflix].

Q: Since you’re now a sophomore, how did your freshman year go at MV?

A: I really like that it's easy to make friends, because I noticed that in middle school, you're surrounded by the same people all the time. But then in high school, I've been around so many other people, including upperclassmen, and there's a lot of variety of people in my grade as well. However, academic wise, you always have to be on top of everything, and that was a big change for me.

Q: What are you looking forward to in sophomore year and the rest of your time at MV?

A: I'm just looking forward to taking more specialized classes. I’m really into computer science and coding, so I’m taking a lot of science classes, like APCS.

Q: What do you think is the biggest way your life has changed since shelter-in-place?

A: Staying in contact with friends. Usually, I try to hang out with people as much as possible at school and even outside of school, but it's really hard because I'm trying to make sure I'm not affecting everyone.

Q: How have your volleyball practices changed?

A: We used to practice in high school gyms that were indoors. But now, none of them are open, and we can’t use their equipment. So we’ve been practicing on grass fields instead, and everyone’s in their own pod. My team has never interacted with other teams, and we barely come in contact with the coaches [...] It's kind of insane, but also more fun because you're not getting coached as much, so it's not as technical and you just really get to play around.