First day of school 2021, caption: Todd Race (Barstow Flickr)
Not so long ago, the Barstow community heard that students would not be returning to in-person classes for the remainder of the year. It was only Spring Break of 2020 when Barstow students received a fateful email saying we would begin going to class virtually. As the 2-year mark of the original COVID wave that swept America approaches, it seems there is not a more fitting time to look back.
Over the course of the last two years, every person in the Barstow community has felt the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. For many people, the last two years have felt like nothing more than 2 months. Barstow senior and B-Line contributor Faizan Khalid ‘22 explains that, “The end of my sophomore year and then all of last year felt like they went by in a complete blur. There was so much stuff happening all the time and trying to balance school, extracurriculars, and being safe with COVID was hard at times and made the time go by so fast. I still remember the first time I ever logged onto zoom for a quick check-in with my teachers during spring break 2020.”
Dan McNickle, Barstow faculty member and parent of Bennett McNickle ‘22 and Jackson McNickle ‘24, spoke a little bit about how the normal parts of how Barstow functions have changed, “First of all, the most obvious difference in our everyday life is the masks. This time 2 years ago I didn’t even really know what a ‘mask’ was. Now, every single person in the school is wearing one all the time. While it may not be ideal, I think we have done the right thing as a community as far as trying to protect ourselves and trying to stay safe. I’m really proud of how everybody (the student body, faculty, staff) has handled the situation. It’s always evolving and we have done a really good job of evolving as a group along with it.”
As we move closer towards the end of the year, more and more challenges will be presented to the community. With COVID still being so prominent, events and traditions that have large gatherings are difficult to conduct safely. Baccalaureate, Tree Day, Ring Ceremony, and many others are some of the traditions coming up that the Barstow community knows and loves. Thanks to diligent work by administrators, staff, and compliance from the student body, we will likely have lots of the normal events this year just like we did last year.
As we move forward with the pandemic, we should always be sure to look back every once in a while and reflect. Hopefully, it will be over soon, but nothing is ever guaranteed. No matter how hard the pandemic is to handle, it only takes a few minutes to appreciate the people around us who have helped us through the process.
