Students find ways to fill free time
STAYING BUSY — Dillon Kohnert, above, has used some his free time to put in extra hours at his job at Morgan's Meat Market. (Submitted photo)
Gavin Anderson admits the announcement took him completely by surprise. “We had classes on Friday, and on Monday we didn’t,” he says. “I had no idea it was going to happen.” One way Anderson has been using the sudden available time has been to put in a few extra hours at his long-standing part-time job as a stocking clerk at Lerberg’s Foods in Ellendale.
“The store has been a lot busier than usual,” he comments, noting that eggs, toilet paper, noodles, paper towels and facial tissues have been hard to keep on the shelves. “People are worried about what’s going to happen, and they want to be sure they’ll have what they need.” Despite the worries and tension, though, Anderson says he has seen some acts of kindness, including times when shoppers handed items from their carts to others.
He also observes that people are acknowledging how important grocery stores—and the people who work in them—can be. “It’s easy to overlook everything we do to keep people’s everyday lives running smoothly,” he says. “But now people are recognizing it, and they’re saying ‘Thank you’ for what we do.”
NRHEG Senior Dillon Kohnert has noticed some similar circumstances. There seem to be more customers than usual at Morgan’s Meat Market, and they seem grateful to be able to find quality products.
Kohnert has been using his unexpected free time to put in more hours at his job, where he performs a variety of tasks in meat processing. “They seem to like having the help,” comments Kohnert with a smile, “so I come.”
He observes that, since people are getting so much less interaction than usual, he’s glad for the social exchanges he finds at work. He even admits to missing school – not always his favorite place to be. But as for the “shelter in place” practices and the spread of the COVID-19 virus, Kohnert is confident everything will work out. “We got this,” he says. “We just need to work our way through it and get it behind us.”
Senior Hope VanWilgen has reached a deep personal revelation during her time in isolation. “I need communication with other people to survive,” she claims energetically. “Thank goodness for the Internet!”
In addition to practicing playing music on her guitar, and creating watercolor and acrylic paintings, VanWilgen says she has been journaling and writing to her pen pals. She has three, one each in Florida, Michigan and Germany. She writes to them using both “snail” and electronic mail format, and says she has benefitted both from learning their experiences, and from sharing observations and feelings.
Like most NRHEG seniors, VanWilgen is frustrated with having her senior year—and especially the last 8 weeks, so suddenly interfered with. “We don’t know whether we’re going to be back together,” she comments. “These last weeks of school are something we’ve looked forward to for a long time, and now we’re not sure whether they’ll even happen.” Late April and May are typically the times when seniors take part in a “service day” at the elementary school, go on a class trip, are featured during an “awards day,” have opportunities to reminisce during last-day celebrations, and, of course, take part in the baccalaureate and graduation ceremonies and their own family celebrations.
On the bright side, however, she has been touched by the “Instagram” and other internet exchanges she has seen among her friends and classmates. “People are supporting and helping each other,” she says. “I have seen some beautiful, wholesome, nice things.”