‘Just keep going’

Duke Ingraham West Nodaway Senior

BURLINGTON JCT., Mo. — A year ago, says West Nodaway senior Duke Ingraham, the situation he — and everyone else across the globe — is in, would have been unimaginable.

After nearly 10 months living with a new reality, though, it’s day-to-day changes that still stick out.

“Like, in class we have to be more conscientious about how far we’re sitting from each other and whatnot, and just recently we have our masks now and everything,” Ingraham said. “But, at our school we still go to classes, we still learn, we still go to lunch and whatnot. But yeah, just the little things, I guess, you notice.”

By now, new routines have become familiar, if not quite muscle memory.

“I feel like we’re used to it by now, but we still think about it,” Ingraham said. “It’s still something that comes up in conversation, or just whenever we’re out and about. Like, going into Maryville, you have to put a mask on to go into anywhere there. So, there’s always somebody who has that moment where they’re like, ‘oh no, my mask!’ And then they have to go back to the car and get their mask, or they have to get a mask from somebody else.

“It’s just, it’s something you never would’ve thought about a year ago.”

Even just nine months ago, the world was a different place, he said.

“I guess … (when) we were leaving (in-person classes) in March, I was kind of in the mindset of, oh, we’re going to leave and then we’re going to come back and this is all probably going to be over and nothing else is going to be changing,” Ingraham said. “And then we come back and you hear all about all these new rules that are going to be in place, and how we might have to end up going and wearing masks. It just like, kind of hit me then that I was like, oh, this still isn’t going to be quite over yet.”

As a senior, in particular, that’s meant missed experiences.

“Yeah, I think it affects (some people more) than others,” he said. “During our homecoming week actually, I know a couple football boys ended up getting quarantined and they didn’t get to play in their homecoming game, and that was really hard for them since they were seniors and it was going to be their last homecoming ever.”

So far, Ingraham said he’s hoping that the new measures put in place will help him to continue to avoid quarantine.

“No, I haven’t been quarantined yet, fingers crossed,” he said. “My brother was a close contact, so he had to be quarantined for a little bit, and I know that … there was some stuff that he missed out on that he really wanted to do. And it just sucks.”

But, he said, there’s not much to do except continue on as best as possible.

“It definitely sucks,” Ingraham said. “But, somewhere deep down, you know that it’s going to end. And it’s that little bit where, you just keep going. Just keep going through life.”

Editor’s Note

This feature was published in The Maryville Forum as a two-part series on Thursday, Dec. 3 and Thursday, Dec. 10. Articles may have been edited for space within the print edition, but will be available at full length at The Forum’s online focus on COVID-19 in the Community.

To give readers an idea of student knowledge and concerns regarding the pandemic, one student’s story will be posted each weekday at 6 p.m. through the end of 2020.