Balancing school, a social life, and the notorious COVID-19 virus is a struggle that high school students outside of 2020 haven’t really dealt with before. One of the unlucky pioneers of this was senior Ethan Mercer. 

Mercer was one of the first students sick with the virus this school year. “I got sick the week before school started,” Mercer said. “I was sick for a solid three days, and I felt lightheaded on the fourth day.” 

Mercer was out of school for 10 days. “I just slept and pounded a whole bunch of water,” he said. “On the days I had to wait, I played all the Spiderman DLCs. I [went] outside and walked around to try and get a little bit of exercise,” he said.

 Mercer said he was lucky that he only had to miss school for a short time. “I started physics online, and fortunately that was the only class I was taking,” he said. “When I got back, it was pretty smooth, but that was because I felt good during the week school started.”

 Mercer said his mom was worried she was going to get the virus. “After that, we just stayed home and made the house look nice,” Mercer said. “No one else in my family got COVID.”

Mercer said he didn’t have too terrible of an experience with the virus, but knows everyone’s story is different. “I feel like it’s like chicken pox,” he said. “[You] get it and get it over with.”