2020-2022- The years of uncertainty and growth…  Nobody knows what comes next when we will get to leave our houses and go out in public, when life becomes normal again, and when we can see our dearest friends again.  The activities done regularly by people to make the most out of their time at home are all symbols of the lockdown, from the workout equipment to the take–out orders from restaurants you don’t know what to expect the next day.  The things that represent me and my change throughout the time of uncertainty can be shown as a baseball bat, the weight room, video games, the video chat service Zoom, and my family.  The way these items changed me will forever be critical to shaping who I am and what I love today.  

The baseball bat is more than just a piece of metal or wood to me.  It represents something that I can always count on as if it were my best friend.  It has taught me valuable lessons that not everything will go my way in life, like when I was hitting and told myself, “God, why can’t I just figure my swing out?  It is just turning your body with a piece of metal or wood, shouldn’t this be easier?”  I then realized that things may not go the way I want them to and I have to work for them because in life nothing is free.  While putting in the work I thought to myself, “Will I get to play baseball this year?  I don’t know if I will get to play the game I love this year.”  I was feared of the uncertainty of not being able to play the game I love because of a disease that was spreading and realized that Covid–19 can’t take away the sport I love and I just have to work harder for the day that it returns and I can be the best player out there because I worked for what I loved and overcame adversity.

The growth that I noticed during the pandemic was not only mental but rather physical too.  The introduction to the weight room changed everything about my perspective of how strong I was.  Getting knocked down again, and again, and again.  It taught me a lesson that you have you have to get back up and try, try again if you want to succeed.  I told myself, “If I want to become stronger I need to be strong mentally like a sensei, and as strong as a hippo.”  The shift in mentality changed my approach and helped me grow physically stronger which helped me grow significantly.  

From seeing your friends every day to not seeing them for months can change friendships.  The introduction of Zoom changed everything because it was almost like being right next to them in class with the way you can talk to them.  That changed the way everyone learned because you couldn’t get face-to-face interaction with them.  Then video games did the same thing but you didn’t have to go on mute when a teacher or a classmate was talking and you could have fun socializing with friends.  Being able to overcome the challenges of not seeing your friends helped also in many ways because you could talk to them while playing a game.  But the uncertainty of when you can see them again always sat in the back of people’s minds because they don’t know when they get to see each other again, but the growth of overcoming adversity changed everyone because they found new ways to interact with people if they couldn’t face to face.  

2020-2022- The years of uncertainty and growth will forever have changed everyone from social skills to work ethic and ways they get to work.  Everyone experienced change and growth throughout this time and still is uncertain of what is to come.