Frosh optimist buoyed by drama, Sticky-notes, and hope
Eric Soto is a talkative, caring, independent person. He is not really into sports but is currently enrolled in the PRHS drama class. Although he’s only a freshman, in the high school drama program, has already helped him, “explore a little more about myself.”
“It makes me not feel super shy,” Soto said. “I feel like that has helped me a little more and let me get loose of the freight.”
A student’s worst enemy — and overcoming it
Like many others, Soto has had to face some obstacles through distance learning. Moreover, he felt that communication with teachers and procrastination were his main obstacles.
His procrastination arose from lack of self control, began pushing back on work and started assignments last minute. Thoughts like, “Oh they aren’t going to see me, so I don’t have to do it,” raced through his mind as he felt himself grown uninterested with the daily routine of Google Meets.
But, when he feels as if he’s going to procrastinate he found himself repeating the same mantra over and over, “I can accomplish anything if I can accomplish this.”
A little help from friends
Soto explained that his mental health was positive at first but “slowly went down” when rules started becoming more strict. However, he never lost hope and saw the bright side of things, like spending time with his friends and finding a way to make them laugh.
“I always crack jokes to friends to kind of cheer them up!” Soto said.
Although quarantine wasn’t eventful for him personally, outside of school, Soto’s social life was still maintained. He made sure to hang out with his friends safely and facetime them as much as possible. Despite the distance and pandemic separan team, facetiming has helped him build a stronger relationship with his friends.
“Now I feel a little more closer to them,” he said, thinking about how each time he heard his friends voices, he felt less alone.
Self discovery along the way
Quarantine has also given him the opportunity to discover some new abilities: such as planning and scheduling. Before making an effort to become more organized, Soto would “just go with the flow”, but now that things are different he has added a lot more structure to his life. He does this by using sticky notes to help him remember things he has to do throughout the day and schedules prior to when he has to attend class virtually.
“I know this is hard for you, but you just got to through it because you’ll thank yourself later, you got things more figured out.”
Though Soto is fine with doing online school, he does have plans to return back to school in January. “If I had the choice to go back, I would,” he said, mentioning that he’s accustomed to in person school and is “not used to the whole technical part of it [online instruction].” With programs like drama and the hope that the hybrid plan will go well through the coming January of the new semester, Soto feels himself looking forward to a future where he gets to step onto the PRHS campus for the first time.
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