Through the Window

16 | The Communicator Magazine

Through the Window: an Introduction to Adaptation

Photography by Mia Goldstein, Ailish Kilbride, Ella Rosewarne, Grace Wang and Cate Weiser

Green is symbolic of change. And the CHS community has undoubtedly experienced change in this past year. As the Covid-19 pandemic discontinued in-person learning for the rest of the 2019-2020 school year — and eventually causing a continuation of remote learning for the majority of the next — CHS students have had to adjust to the situation at hand.

And with this, we present the Adaptation Edition. In an entire magazine devoted to the theme, it has become an ambitious capture of CHS students and community members and their change throughout the past year. Through The Communicator journalists’ tireless reporting, it is evident how change has percolated into many aspects of our community. From athletics, to CHS clubs like Mock Trial and CET, to food, to music, to education and to everyday lives, change has become the most familiar aspect of our lives over the past year.

To introduce this extensive theme, we introduce “Through the Window.” This collection of small feature articles focuses on different CHS students. Not only do we get to physically look through their windows and into their lives, but we get to look into how their lives have changed with the pandemic. We hope you enjoy the dedicated reporting in the Adaption Edition and learn a little more about the CHS community.

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GRACE BRADLEY

Grace Bradley was feeling burnt out.

It was the second semester of her junior year at CHS, and all of her time was consumed with school work, extracurriculars and feelings of exhaustion. She wouldn’t get home until late at night, ultimately facing hours of homework that carried her further into the night. But when the Covid-19 pandemic forced the state into a lockdown and months-long school closures, Bradley was confronted by an unexpected change. “I was just skipping school,” Bradley said. “I was like, ‘I don’t want to go,” and I was trying to catch up. Then [it was] completely different. I didn’t know how to handle myself at first because there was nothing to do.”

At the beginning of the pandemic, Bradley was faced with a hump. At first, she followed suit with the statewide lockdown and sudden shift in lifestyle; she had nothing to do and found herself meandering through her house. But after adjusting to the new copious amounts of time she had on her hands, Bradley finally got over her hump: she learned how to be bored.

“I taught myself how to be bored and just be fine with that,” Bradley said. “I could spend days doing nothing, and I wouldn’t be going crazy. I was fine to just sit and let my mind wander. I think that’s a really good skill because we can get so caught up in our lives doing all these things. At some point you need to be able to have moments where you aren’t doing anything.”

Out of this complacency with her boredom, Bradley’s motivation increased. While she was able to sit for hours and be okay with boredom, she was also able to conjure more energy to start tasks or projects. Now, Bradley must shift this motivation towards school. Although she has less free time compared to the beginning

of the pandemic, her schedule is not as time consuming as before the lockdown last year. To acclimate to the challenges of online school and an increased workload, Bradley has taken to making lists to complete the tasks her senior year has welcomed.

“It is so much easier if I plan things out — just like small things,” Bradley said. “I’m going to eat breakfast at eight o’clock, then go for a walk and then go to classes — just tiny things. If I plan it, I feel more accomplished, and it helps me get through my day.”

List making has become a coping mechanism for Bradley, allowing her to adjust to the changes online school has brought. This new set of organizational skills, however, is not the only lesson she has learned during the past year that she will carry with her in life. Bradley has realized the importance of sticking to her morals. After hearing of her cousin’s travels during the pandemic, Bradley was frustrated with this irresponsibility. But instead of judging her cousin, she was able to assert what she believed was right and stuck to it.

“It doesn’t matter what other people are doing,” Bradley said. “You just have to do what you think is right. I think that’s something to really take, although it’s really hard — especially in this time when you want to be doing other things.”

Despite the academic burnout she was experiencing before the pandemic ensued, Bradley is ready to go back to in-person school. She had initially thought about taking a gap year to replenish her motivation, but now she is heavily anticipating going to college next year. And Bradley will be bringing the changes and lessons she discovered during the pandemic with her.

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OLIVER LETE-STRAKA

For Oliver Lete-Straka, not much has happened since last March. Amidst the pandemic, he has been fortunate to be in a situation that has allowed him to be relatively unscathed from the hardships that have ensued. But the small activities he has become accustomed to since the state-issued lockdown last spring are of little significance compared to his normal routine.

One of these activities, though, has proven to be formative for Lete-Straka: he has taken to tinkering with small drones. His first introduction to this hobby was through a YouTube video, which led to listening to First-Person View (FPV) drone podcasts before bed at night. Lete-Straka’s new affinity for drones has ushered in a new potential future in aerospace engineering.

“It felt good to have mini projects to keep my mind engaged instead of watching a movie all day or just staring at my phone all day,” Lete-Straka said.

Exploring his craftsmanship in drones became therapeutic — and served him with a sense of accomplishment. Before occupying his time constructively, though, he was consuming a lot of junk food and sleeping for long periods when the initial shift into a lockdown began. To savor what Lete-Straka thought was a two week vacation from school, he spent time with his family playing Mario Kart or working out in the living room. As the lockdown lengthened, his relationships began to change.

“My relationships with people that I was close to became a lot closer,” Lete-Straka said. “People that I was friends with but didn’t really see outside of school, [we] really grew apart. I haven’t seen a lot of the regular people, regular faces I would see, which is sad. I’m scared I won’t have a connection when I get back to school with them. But the regular people I would hang out with — like my main three friends, my girlfriend, my family, my house — I feel like we all grew, or I grew a lot closer to all of them.”

Even though Lete-Straka’s life has been put on hold in order to adhere to the pandemic guidelines, he has still been able to find activities to occupy his time. His affinity for drones, as well as his new-found patience and resourcefulness will be lessons and activities he will carry with him.

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The long lunchroom tables paired with little round seats, where whole friend groups gathered, used to be a constant in Molly Hamalainen’s life. This was a time she felt close and connected to her friends. There were only a select few that Hamalainen would hang out with outside of school, but once the pandemic hit, the number of people she stayed in contact with decreased immensely.

“I didn’t realize how much our friendship was at stake because we weren’t hanging out outside of school,” Hamalainen said. “We are super distant now, and I consider them my friends, but I feel like some of them might not consider me their friends just because I haven’t spoken to them.”

Hamalainen limited the number of friends that she was hanging out with and also realized who was truly there for her. She has a group of close friends that have put time and effort into their relationship, and they also happen to be geographically convenient for them to get together.

Although Hamalainen has found a tight-knit group of friends, she no longer has all of her friends from school and extracurricular activities like sports and musical theater. Hamalainen has enough to deal with starting as a freshman at CHS and staying on track in school, so she has not rejoined her extracurriculars. All her friendships have become distant — similar to the relationships with her old school friends.

“I’ve always been sort of anxious and an introvert,” Hamalainen said. “So my alone time was precious to me, but I was still able to enjoy going out. However, during the pandemic, especially over the summer, I just decided that it’s safer if I stay inside. But then that led me to realize how much better I feel inside when I’m not constantly hanging out with people.”

But the time alone has really allowed Hamalainen to grow. She understands now that she can thrive apart from her friends. Throughout the school day, Hamalainen can get very overwhelmed, and she has gained an understanding of her body and how to control her emotions.

“I’ve been way better at knowing when I need to do certain things,” Hamalainen said. “If I’m in school and getting really anxious or really upset, then I can just go and sit down and put out my yoga mat and do yoga, or just meditate. I just think I know myself more because I’ve spent so much time by myself.”

MOLLY HAMALAINEN

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REAGAN

As we come up on the 300 day marker of the global pandemic, reflecting back on the growth and change over the past 11 months is hard. From trying to remember what the first day in isolation looked like, to recalling the dark gloomy days of April, is something most don’t want to revisit. Although reflection can sometimes be hard it is important to go back and remember the good, bad and ugly days.

Reagan Masek, a freshman at CHS, has changed over the past 300 days for the better through discovering deeper self-care and learning the power of her own voice.

“I have become a lot more aware of everything happening in the world, especially the kinds of things that people are going through,” Masek said. “I participated in a couple of Black Lives Matter protests over the summer with my sister, and that really changed my perspective on a lot of things. If it wasn’t for the pan-

demic, I don’t think I would have become as aware of all the things we as young people are going through.”

Masek says that caring for herself is more important to her mental health than most realize. She also tells us that the pandemic has taught her to realize what things she wants to invest more energy in and what things that she wants to worry less about.

“I think being alone all the time has given me more time to think and take care of myself,” Masek said. “It has made me realize that self-care is so important, and it has helped me better myself in ways that I wouldn’t have come to if it weren’t for the global shut down. I now have limits on my phone that only allow me to be on it for the second part of the day. This habit has helped strengthen relationships with my family and friends. Creating new habits for myself has helped me more than ever through these past 300 days.”

MASEK

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EMMY

Emmy Wernimont, now a CHS freshman, was sitting in her living room with her mom on March 12, 2020 when she first heard AAPS would officially be closing due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Fearing this, Wernimont, an eighth grader attending Slauson Middle School at the time, had gone to her school earlier that day to pick up all her stuff. As she let the news sink in, Wernimont went for a long walk.

“I was sort of in shock,” Wernimont said. “I realized it was sort of a big deal but I had no idea that it was going to last this long. I thought we’d be back by April at the latest.”

In the fall, Wernimont began to play sports socially distanced. She did conditioning outside with the Pioneer high school basketball team.

“It was nice because it was something scheduled at a time where you had to be somewhere and do something,” Wernimont said. “It was also nice to get to see other people in-person.”

Wernimont is disappointed about missing out on the end of her eighth grade year at Slauson Middle School, as well as her freshman year at CHS.

“I want to know what it’s like to go into high school,” Wernimont said. “I have been in CHS only once. I want to be able to see the school and get to know it.”

It’s been difficult for Wernimont to make friends through the online school format.

“I go to CHS and a lot of my friends from middle school don’t go here, so I don’t know a ton of people anyways,” Wernimont said. “There’s no lunchtime or passing time where I can have conversations with people and actually get to know them.”

Wernimont is hoping to get back in the classroom to finish off her freshman year.

“It’s exciting that we might be going back,” she said. “I’m a little bit worried about Covid-19. But I think if there are precautions, we stay distant and everyone keeps their masks on, it will be fine.”

WERNIMONT

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For Ava Hartung, CHS junior, the past 12 months have been a momentous time of self growth and realization.

In the past, Hartung believes she came across as brash and overly impulsive to her peers and friends. Whether it was engaging in heated debates in the classroom or her outspoken personality, she was always prepared to speak her mind, never really considering how others could perceive her. She responded swiftly to any comments that could undermine her ideas, and the counter was usually hasty and to the point.

“I was really passionate, but almost too much and not always about the right things,” Hartung said. “When somebody said something that I didn’t understand, I wanted to debate it with them, and I really took it to a personal level.”

Her strong opinions and occasional outbursts secluded her from her classmates and didn’t always paint the most approachable version of herself. But underneath this facade, Hartung is a soft, goofy and loving person.

She generally considers her lifestyle as slow paced; she spends her free time drawing and playing guitar.

Time out of in-person school has offered her a new outlook on her past habits. With more time on her hands, she has had the opportunity to reflect on her actions and has taken steps to re-frame her outlook and bearings.

“I’ve been forced to sit back and go slower, given that all interactions are now online and I have more time to think about what I am going to say,” Hartung said.

Because all students are now forced to unmute themselves on Zoom when they want to contribute to a discussion, Hartung has found that she has more time to rehearse what she wants to say publicly. This limits any chance of thoughts slipping out before she can take them back.

“I am really trying to be more receptive,” Hartung said. “I am learning to pick my moments.”

AVA HARTUNG

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MARCY MCCORMICK

While the past 12 months have been a tumultuous ride of uncertainty and Covid-19 restrictions, Marcy McCormick has found herself grappling with new teaching styles after 18 years of in-person learning, exploring all of Washtenaw County’s nature reserves and watching her sons start kindergarten in a way she never imagined.

One year ago, McCormick was preparing her FOS III class for their infectious disease unit. She did not suspect that her lesson plans and the annual watch party for the movie “Contagion” would be put to a halt due to the start of a global pandemic. Fortunately for McCormick, she was well adept in the multifaceted nature of infectious diseases and was equipped for understanding the science behind what was unfolding.

As she made the shift to virtual learning around March, she found herself and her family seizing all opportunities to get outside to try and maintain a sense of normalcy and routine.

“We were able to, as a family, still go on a few trips,” McCormick said. “We went to a cabin up north and down to Hocking Hills, Ohio.”

Ensuing her restful and family-oriented summer, there was still a looming sense of anxiety over online teaching as September approached. One of her biggest

concerns regarded how she would adjust her project based curriculum to something accessible for students at home. It took about a month for her to get settled into a style of teaching that was fitting for her and her students.

“It’s challenging to have motivation to be excited about teaching when you’re not getting that [in-person] response from a student,” McCormick said. “I am trying to figure out the needs, and respect the needs, of students, while also trying to engage and create a sense of classroom unity and connectedness. [This] is something that I’m struggling with.”

In addition to starting her own class online, McCormick’s twin boys were also starting school virtually. The initial excitement and bittersweet moments of sending her kids off on their first day of school and seeing them active in a classroom was something she was hoping to experience.

Although McCormick has dealt with and overcome the feelings of disappointment in moving her classroom online and missing out on benchmark experiences with her sons, she has also relished in and made the most out of the summer months. She is looking forward to a time where things will return back to normal and remains hopeful.

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RYAN BENTLEY

Despite the pressures of the pandemic, CHS junior Ryan Bentley has been finding ways to remain close with his friends and family.

Bentley has started a bi-weekly game night with his family. He says that playing cards and board games with them has brought them close, and he now feels more connected with them than ever before. Bentley also goes with his family on weekend trips, which he feels has strengthened their bond even further.

However, Bentley sometimes finds himself needing relief from his family. For this, he often goes to his basement. Bentley has set up his exercise equipment and school computer there, so it’s where he spends most of his time. He says that besides his parents occasionally coming down, that is a space that he has mostly to himself.

When the weather is nice and Covid-19 cases are low, Bentley also likes to spend his time outside with a few of his friends. He has even managed to make a few new friends. Bentley feels somewhat lucky to have met them at the time that he did. Otherwise he feels it would have been hard to find people to talk to throughout the quarantine. He says that it has been nearly impossible to form relationships with people through

online school.

“I think if we went back to school, some of my teachers wouldn’t know who I am,” Bentley said. “I haven’t seen anyone in online school who I really felt like I could be friends with.”

Technology has been helping him to stay in contact with some of his friends. When they deem it unsafe to hang out in-person, they remain in contact through a group chat on Snapchat. In addition, Bentley says that, when quarantine started, gaming helped him stay in contact with some of his friends, but he felt he had to stop when the school year began.

“After the beginning of quarantine, I was on my Xbox way too much,” Bentley said. “I knew that if I continued to do that, my grades would drop, so three days before school started, I decided not to touch it again.”

Bentley also believes that this quarantine has had some positive effects on him and his family.

“I think I’ve become less self-conscious, which has helped me make friends,” Bentley said. “I think I learned to appreciate my family more because I’m spending more time with them, which I didn’t really do before.”

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Last March, CHS junior Mia Wood was desperate for a break — a break from school and a break from social expectations, where she could retreat to her room to recuperate. When Covid-19 closed Michigan schools on March 13, 2020, her wish, in a way, was granted.

Over the quarantine period, Wood took an in-depth look at herself and learned about who she really was -- from hobbies she loves to how to share her opinions.

While Wood has always had an interest in painting and sketching, she used the past six months to expand on her skills. She learned how to work with a variety of paints, and spent hours sketching things outside around her house. Her passion inspired her to take a painting and color theory class offered at CHS this past semester, which she came out of with five completed paintings.

A common subject for Wood’s art are the plants that fill her bedroom. She has so many that her mother has gone so far as to ban her from purchasing any more. She spent time learning about how to take care of them, and what makes them different. Wood now has

over 20 plants in her room and throughout her house.

Wood believes that the biggest thing she discovered about herself was her fear to share her opinions. One day, Wood saw a comment on an Instagram infographic that felt wrong to her.

“Something they said didn’t sit right with me, and I wanted to share why it didn’t sit right with me,” Wood said.

She pushed herself to respond to the comment, and explained to them why it made her uncomfortable. The breakthrough moment pushed her to read more articles and books, which exposed her to a wider range of opinions and voices. Eventually, she let go of the fear she felt when she wanted to speak out.

“Voicing your different opinion is important, because you can learn from each other and educate each other on those opinions,” Wood said. “It’s what makes us all different.”

MIA WOOD

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SAGE IWASHYNA

Sage Iwashyna entered quarantine thinking he’d love the alone time. But after five months of isolating and following social distancing guidelines, he realized how much he hated it.

“A lot of introverted people were initially like, ‘We get to stay inside and not see anyone,’” Iwashyna said. “But now, I would kill to be able to go to a park and just be around people.”

Iwashyna wouldn’t characterize himself as an extrovert, but perhaps an outgoing introvert. As someone who generally sticks to his own and is pretty low-key, he found that the time spent alone had him craving for more human interaction. Little conversations and small exchanges that once went unnoticed, like high fives and waves in the hallways, became something that he truly misses.

Over the summer, his days were consumed with Netflix and picking up forgotten hobbies like knitting. Time seemed to run together and daily tasks like waking up and eating became monotonous and one of

the same. On the good days, book in hand, Iwashyna would take his dogs to the Arb to sit by the river and read.

After being laid off from his job as a busser for Zingerman’s in late August, he started working as a barista for Sweetwaters. His new job helped with his need for human interaction through trivial conversations with customers.

As a second semester senior, Iwashyna has done some serious reflecting these past 12 months. “I have learned how much I need to be within a functioning society,” Iwashyna said. He has taken what he’s gathered about himself and is starting to implement it into his life now. He is opening up more to strangers, working on being fully in the moment and not passively going through life without appreciating the little things. When the world becomes safe again, Iwashyna cannot wait to hug his friends.

“What I’ve taken away from all of this is how much humans need each other,” Iwashyna said.

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JOSH MOSS

When the Covid-19 pandemic initiated the first state-wide lockdown and the district-wide closure of school, Josh Moss was ecstatic. He was burnt out, watching his interest in his classes slowly dwindle until the point where he only looked forward to one. Moss was in desperate need of a break. Even music, a large part of his life, was an area Moss was struggling with. Although CHS jazz band teacher Jack Wagner is able to balance the dichotomy between a competitive environment and creation, Moss still felt stress while playing his instruments.

“Piano has always been the greatest love of mine because there’s never been any stress attached to it,” Moss said. “I would just play lessons, perform whatever concert there was, but it was incredibly low stress. Meanwhile, saxophone, while I was ‘good’ at it, it was never a love of mine because there’s always push. There’s always this competition that you have to have.”

The break from school due to the increasing threat of the pandemic gave Moss the opportunity to rekindle his love for just playing: no stress, no competition, just playing for himself. He was able to look past the patterns of stress he immersed himself in, taking his “blinders” off to listen and feel the music from a new perspective.

“It’s more liberating because you are able to listen more deep-

ly,” Moss said. “It’s no longer about someone else listening to your music, but it’s like, how do you hear your own music? And so that also takes away a lot of stress because the only person you’re playing for in those moments is you. There’s no one else in the room, there’s nothing you’re preparing for; it’s literally just you.”

In the time he wasn’t practicing the piano or saxophone, Moss relished in the time he had to himself. However, around May, he started to crave the social interaction he was missing from being alone. He had “an itch that you can’t scratch for social communication” beyond the small circle he grew close to during his months in lockdown. From conversing with the same people for an extended period of time, in conjunction with growing older and maturing, Moss was able to see the nuances of conversations or political topics. The repeated discussion he had allowed him to recognize the intelligence he is surrounded by, seeing the new perspectives others may have. These conversations are like points to a much larger pointillism painting, as he described it.

Although the past year started with intense burn-out, Moss’s revitalized love for music and nuanced understanding of complex issues have guided him through the pandemic. And when it is over, he plans to take these lessons and apply them to the obstacles yet to come.

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