It feels like only yesterday that people were talking about COVID-19 like it was nothing. Jokes about it were frequent and life seemed like it wasn’t about to change anytime soon. Wrong!

Before we knew it, we had two weeks off from school. Talk about a score for students, or so we thought. I, personally, had no problem with it, though. I felt like it was only fair and made up for the lack of snow days this past winter.

As time went on and the stay-at-home order was constantly being extended by Gov. Wolf, I soon realized that school as I had known it was over, and remote learning was pretty much here to stay. While it definitely took some time to get used to for both students and teachers alike, we pushed through and finished strong.

I can’t express quite how good of a job my instructor, Kevin Strawn, did in keeping us as a class challenged. One would think that a class like electrical construction would be almost impossible to practice at home, but somehow, he pushed us as well as himself and managed to succeed.

In the beginning, we were instructed to draw blueprints of our homes and theoretically fill them with the proper devices, spacing them according to code.

Another project we were given had us show what hand signals were needed to direct a crane in moving one load from one area to another in yet another theoretical situation.

It wasn’t all work, though. Many days had us answer riddles and watch videos like “Minute with Maxwell,” where we were given a statement of strength for the day.

In our class’s Zoom meetings, Mr. Strawn would always follow up the day’s lesson with a survival lesson of his own.

In the end, the year turned out to be alright. Yeah, we didn’t get here without a fight, yet here we are nonetheless. We pushed through and finished strong.

And for all the BAVTS and BASD seniors, myself included; The time of our lives that we thought would never come has finally arrived. We did it. We couldn’t have done it though without the help of our friends, family, counselors, coaches and teachers. So from the seniors of electrical construction at BAVTS, thank you Mr. Strawn.

All this being said, we, the class of 2020, move forward now with strength, perseverance and unbreakable wills, ready for what the world throws at us. Congratulations to all graduating 2020 seniors.