The Four Sides

To learn more about how MV students are dealing with the current situation regarding COVID-19 and how its impacted their life, we interviewed 4 students, one from each grade about their experience.

Part 1 - A Freshmen Perspective

Q: Are there any events that you were looking forward to but didn’t get to attend due to COVID-19?

A: Yeah, I can think of a couple. My older brother, he plays volleyball on varsity. Even though he’s not a senior this year, I wanted to go to some of his home games because those are really fun to watch. [The varsity team] is a lot better than the teams that I play against. I’m also in Chinese 1, but my parents don’t speak Chinese because they’re Korean. But then my Chinese teacher invited me to go to this Chinese speaking contest in San Francisco. It was supposed to take place on April 19, but it got canceled pretty early because it was in San Francisco, and that was a little bit disappointing.

Q: What are some things that you have been doing at home?

A: I’ve decided to get into making drinks, so I’ve been making Dalgona coffee, strawberry milk and different types of smoothies, and I’ve been giving them to my brothers as well so we can gain weight together. [The most fun thing I’ve done] has been watching TikTok, specifically videos where people are making things.

Part 2 - The Sophomore View

Q: How was the current situation impacted you specifically?

A: A lot of big things that were gonna happen to me this year are no longer occurring I guess. For El Estoque, we were going to go to New York. It was a 5 day thing that just went down the drain. That was bad and also for speech I qualified for Nationals. Well a national tournament. NIETOC, but the actual tournament itself but canceled, so I couldn’t go there. Now I’m having to go to another national tournament that’s um gonna be conducted on zoom. I have no idea how that’s gonna work. And then like also sports, I play badminton and the season got suspended, canceled. Everything, everything, EVERYTHING is canceled.

Q: What has your day to day turned into?

A: Uh sleep, eat, phone, eat, yeah sleep, eat, phone, Instagram, Facetime, it’s my daily schedule at this point.

Part 3 - The Junior Experience

"I get to spend more time with my family, and my older sister [...] It's nice having her home [...] It's nice having everyone home [...] I don't think we've spent time together like this in four years [...] I did make a TikTok with my sister yesterday, which was fun [...] It took like 40 minutes, which was weird. I think it was just making it, even though it took a lot of time. So I guess I get to make more TikToks? I’ve been watching a lot [of K- Drama] lately, but I don’t want to just go on a binge, but then I want to watch more [...] I stopped watching K-Drama around sophomore year, because I just don’t have the time, and then I started this semester, and I have so much more time to get some K-dramas in. I’ve been reading my authors study book as well [...] My sister finished ‘Crash Landing’, I made her watch it, and the TikTok we made yesterday was cause she had a K-Drama hangover, so that was really fun, and it was really weird to see her having her first K-Drama hangover."

Part 4 - The Senior Insight

Q: What’s the one event/thing you want to save?

A: There’s arguments for everything. There’s arguments [...] if someone really wanted a senior award, they wanted some recognition for the work they’ve done, then senior awards night would be really great. If someone wants a nice night where they could dress up and feel great and go on a boat, then senior ball makes sense. For senior all night party, for people being able to hang out with their class for one last time after graduation. Graduation and baccalaureate is sharing the end of your high school career with your family. Taking that whole step and doing that thing with the tassel […] there’s an argument for everything. Everyone’s feeling like they’ve lost a little bit from each of those.

Q: What’s one piece of advice you’d give to MV students now that your senior year is ending?

A: At every institution or school or any place you’ll be, there’s gonna be something nice about the people and something that’s unique. It’s a combination of the community and the environment we’re in and I’ve grown accustomed to the area and Monta Vista and I think this is what a lot of Monta Vista people are used to. There’s a high chance that their next step will not be as similar as Monta Vista in a variety of ways. I think taking a moment when you’re walking between classes to just take a moment and see these are people who I might not be their bestest friends and I might have never talked to them but they’re still there and they’re still walking the same campus and they may have the same teachers as you and they may be experiencing different feelings, different emotions, different day to day. But there’s something in the shared identity that I think is really valid. It’s really important to take a moment and look around, that’s really what I wish I could still get. The events, you’ll have plenty of events in life and they might not be the same as what your high school ones will be, and high school events are super special, but there’s the opportunity to take a moment and say “I’m still in high school and I’m still finding myself.” so having that community is very important.