Little things that don't seem quite so little are missed the most
Anna Baxter stares through a clear door at her grandparents' home, her breath fogging up a small swath of the glass, her fingers making smudge marks as she presses her hand on the surface.
She can't touch her grandma or grandpa. She can't hug them. She can't kiss them hello or goodbye.
The only contact she has with them is through a barrier, or with a long-distance wave from the end of the driveway when she and her mother drop off groceries.
It's the cruel reality of life now amid a coronavirus pandemic that is spreading across the globe like wildfire.
It's the little things that don't seem quite so little anymore that are missed the most.
“There are SO many things I want to do when this is all over,” said Anna, a Butler Area High School senior. “The first thing I am going to do ... is go give the people I care about a hug.”
Anna is not alone. High School seniors across Butler County have been trying to adapt to a new, scary normal.
They have little contact with extended family and friends. They miss things they never thought they'd miss.
Simple things like training for the sports they play or practicing for the spring musical are no longer quite so simple, and things they never thought would be affected by COVID-19 and the measures to halt its spread have been impacted.
But they all share a common belief: it will be over and when it is, they will no longer take those little things that are actually pretty big ones for granted.
Gabby Lucas is an affectionate person.The Butler senior is always throwing her arms around her friends and giving them playful, loving squeezes.She hasn't been able to do that because of COVID-19 and social distancing guidelines. It's been difficult.It's one of the things she misses the most.“There's nothing I love more than hugs,” she said.Gabby made a video to honor her senior classmates and her teachers. It has been well-received, creating quite the social media buzz.“The first thing I'm going to do when this is over is drive to everyone's homes that helped me with the video and give them hugs,” Gabby said. “Plus, after all of this, it would be nice to go out and see everyone face-to-face instead of on a phone screen.”Slippery Rock High School senior Nate Gill wants to take things a step further.With prom and graduation in jeopardy and likely soon to be canceled, Nate has been kicking around plans to hold his own prom and graduation ceremonies for his classmates once the pandemic subsides.“I feel prom is something that we earned after 13 years of schooling in the public school system,” he said. “I've already had halls reach out and have ideas for other halls to rent if I need to.”Nate said the idea of no prom and no graduation for himself and his peers is unacceptable.Psychologically, the senior class president believes it would be a blow that would linger for a lifetime.“It's an important steppingstone that we have all watched happen year after year,” he said. “We need it in order to fully conceptualize that our years in high school are over and we are moving on to the next chapter of our lives.”Seniors have also discovered something truly unexpected.They miss school.“If my mom came into my room and woke me up at 5:30 or 6:30 a.m. and told me it was over and I had to go to school,” said Freeport senior Jarrett Heilman, “I wouldn't be happy about losing sleep, but I'd jump up and be ready to go.”Seniors also long to see their teachers again.“I've found the major thing I miss is just being able to face-to-face talk with my teachers,” said Butler High senior Vincent Pellegrino.Jarrett aches for normalcy. But he also pleads with everyone he knows to see the big picture and take the long view.It won't, as he says, last forever.“Just have normal interactions again, giving handshakes and hugs. That sort of stuff,” Jarrett said. “I think too many people are down in these times mostly because we're always focused on what is happening right now instead of what we will be able to do in the future.”
What do you put in a yearbook, a time of memories, when there are no memories to immortalize?That's the problem facing Mars Area High School yearbook adviser Karen Yost.Yost hasn't seen anything like this in her 28 years of compiling a yearbook.“We had to scrap the whole layout,” she said.Yost, who also is an English teacher at Mars, anticipated school would be closed. She instructed students to grab any yearbook materials they could, including two laptops, and take them home.They are working on filling the yearbook remotely.Caelan Barry is the yearbook co-editor. The junior has been going nonstop, brainstorming creative ways to fill the pages.“We're getting used to it,” she said. “For the sports pages, me and someone else suggested photos of the players practicing at home. And for prom, people getting dressed up. It's all we can do.”Mars senior Brooke Dean is writing a message to her class.It's not an easy task.“There's pressure there because this isn't like anything we've ever experienced,” Brooke said.
Spring sports — or that lack of them — is nothing like anyone has experienced, either.Michelle Krill Field at Historic Pullman Park is usually bustling with activity in the spring.The quaint stadium where legends like Joe DiMaggio and Josh Gibson once played would host as many as four high school baseball games per day.Butler, Knoch, Moniteau, Karns City and North Catholic call the park home. Other teams in Butler County and across the region often use the facility in a pinch.Now, because of the coronavirus pandemic, the stands are shrouded in silence.No smack of a fastball sizzling into a catcher's mitt. No ting of an aluminum bat making contact with a ball. No fans cheering in full throat after a play at the plate.Just eerie stillness.Moniteau senior Gage Neal normally would be pitching or playing third base for the Warriors at Pullman Park.Instead he wonders if he'll ever play again.Seniors miss more than just competing.They miss putting on the school uniform. They miss playing side by side with their friends. And, mostly, they miss having a goal to pursue.Anna is hoping to get a chance to be a part of a fourth consecutive WPIAL Class AAA team title. The Butler girls track and field team has won it three straight seasons, thanks in part to her success in the 300 hurdles.Anna and her team will most likely never get the chance.The pandemic has shown Anna, who will run at Duquesne University next season, just how much she loves the sport.“I knew that I would miss it, but I didn't know that I could miss something this much,” she said. “For most of us, track is a year-round sport. There isn't an 'offseason.' We are around it so much that it becomes integrated into our everyday lives; it's the norm.”Sports are more than just game days, many senior athletes said. To most, it's how they define themselves.It's the rhythm of their life.It keeps them grounded. Keeps them focused. Without it, they feel lost.“For most athletes, their lives revolve around their sport; it's what keeps them going,” Anna said. “Quarantine has definitely proven to me how much I thrive off of track, the competition, and being around my coaches and teammates.”Even in the “offseason,” players are missing their sport.Gabby is on a club volleyball team that has had its schedule rearranged and in some cases canceled.“We had three more tournaments, one was canceled and the other moved to the end of June,” Gabby said. “But the bond I created with my team this season is unmatched to any other team I've been a part of. Our last tournament was played in Cleveland and (we) won, and that was the last time I saw those girls. I'd give anything to see and play with them just one more time.”Knoch senior Skylar Burkett is trying to stay in volleyball shape by running up and down her winding, hilly road in Saxonburg.She takes her younger sister, Journey, out in the yard to pepper the volleyball when she can.It's no replacement for her normal routine.She also spends time writing songs and performing them on her piano.When this is all over, her goal is a simple one and one that is shared by many of her peers.They want to do something normal. They want to experience the mundane.“I want to go to the coffee shop on Main Street in Saxonburg,” Skylar said, “and sit with my friends and just talk.”
