How the Pandemic Affected Me Personal Essay Sample

It has been about 2 years since schools closed down for COVID-19. Honestly, It doesn't feel that way. COVID-19 had sprung a few adversities along my way to becoming a successful student-athlete and happy individual. But the pandemic affected me more than I thought it would have.

It was around this time 2 years ago, (April), is when I would start questioning when we will return to school and forget about the new virus that is going around. But that never happened, I was wondering if we had a plan to continue learning and sure enough we did; remote learning. I struggled so much with remote learning to the point where I had unusually low grades when I had a history of being an academically good student. I had trouble staying focused and awake in most zoom classes and that really affected my academic performance.

Eventually, when we returned to in-person classes my junior year, it was somewhat better. I got my grades to go up by a bit, as well as get to interact with people again. But the rules were very strict and not what I expected at all. 

On the surface, it looked like COVID will be over soon and will not have a big impact, but that was not the case. I am a student-athlete and I believe athletes were affected the most out of all people in school. In the spring we had a few sessions and practices but that was it. We had shorter seasons, small rosters, and modified regulations that affected the sport. Seniors from the last 2 years had missed opportunities to shine and get recognized by colleges because of the cancellation of the season. I was in the shortened wrestling season, which had 9 meets and no tournaments or conference. Which meant no conference, regionals, and medals. It was sad to hear but I still participated because I wanted to play the sport since It was delayed.