The coronavirus has caused the cancellation of many things important to me, and many other people. Are these necessary cancellations? 100 percent. Does that make it any less frustrating? Not at all.

I was on my way to Holland, Michigan, two hours into my drive, for the swimming state meet, when the MHSAA cancelled all sports. I had a chance to achieve two all-states, and possibly a team state championship.

I worked for a year to get to where I was in the season. My senior captains worked too. We all had an opportunity taken from us and that hurts on another level. Sitting in that car, 45 minutes from the biggest meet of my life, and finding out we can’t swim, was devastating.

Over the weeks I have gotten past the anger of the state meet, and I have realized something. This won’t be the worst thing to come of this for me. I am in the heart of important standardized testing, and will now miss huge opportunities to achieve high scores. This could have a lasting impact on my future moving forward.

I can’t fully understand the feelings the seniors are having. It is going to be terrible to have to miss graduation, prom and many other end of year celebrations. But they also are secure in at least somewhat knowing what they’re going to do moving forward. Many have found out about college and other paths.

I now sit in quarantine, unable to take the ACT or SAT. I don’t really know what my plan is. I don’t know how this could affect my future moving forward. I regret not taking these tests earlier. I obviously wasn’t planning on having my opportunities taken away by a pandemic.

The coronavirus is obviously a huge deal. I understand the scope of its infectiousness and the impact it can have on people’s lives. This is not a small issue. Take the social distancing and lockdown guidelines seriously. There are lives in our hands, and while losing state competitions and standardized testing is terrible, life comes first.

Hopefully, I will have more chances in the future. I hope this doesn’t go so long as to affect my college application processes, without all my tests to show, or the scores I am most proud of. I pray that this virus will pass as soon as possible. I don’t know what effect it could have on life it doesn’t, but the bottom line is the effect could be huge.