Distance Learning: A Student Perspective         

La Quinta High School Student Shares Experience with School During a Pandemic

Editor’s note: Over the next several months, look for periodic articles written by DSUSD students regarding their experiences with school 2020 style. The first is by Emma Svoboda, executive president of the La Quinta High School Associate Student Body (ASB).

LA QUINTA — Hi, my name is Emma Svoboda and I am a student-athlete and the ASB Executive President at La Quinta High School. Go Blackhawks!

This year has definitely been a struggle due to the pandemic and schools being shut down, I am not going to sugarcoat it, but it has also been a blessing in disguise. I can remember the exact day before we were put into quarantine on Friday, March 13, 2020. It was still the flu and cold season so everyone was getting a bit paranoid about getting sick and some of the teachers were optimistic that we would go on a two week break and eventually come back after everything was solved. This in fact was not the case.

The entire world was in lockdown struggling to find things to keep them busy. At the beginning of this there were two types of people, the people who struggled to find things to keep them busy and the people who were stepping out of their comfort zones and thinking out of the box to find things to keep them moving along. I was one of those motivated people. I remember waking up, working out, participating in school, doing an art project after school, working out again, and then usually ending the night with a movie or a TV show. This was my consistent schedule up until about July.

My dream is to play Division 1 women’s basketball in college so I knew I could not settle during all of this. The ones who put in work when no one is watching are the successful ones. I am so grateful that I had the chance to play for a high exposure club team last year and was able to get looks from college coaches by playing  in the biggest viewing tournaments in the country last year. Right after quarantine had been announced everything went into a lockdown so this meant that I was not able to visit some of the college campuses that I had been in contact with. This was definitely hard for me to grasp onto because I felt that I needed to actually be on campus to get a feel, but I prepared myself and settled with the fact that I may not get to visit campuses before I make my final decision. I have been blessed to practice the sport that I love throughout all of this. I have a hoop in my driveway so you can catch me out there every night working on my game.

The biggest accomplishment that has come out of all of this was that I was able to make my final decision on where I will be attending the next four years to continue my academic and athletic career and that is the University of Oklahoma. Yes, this year has been a struggle and it seems as though there is not a light at the end of the tunnel, but along with it has come accomplishments and great moments with family.