2020 has turned out to be an exponentially challenging year for all students.  Seniors and juniors are striving their best maintaining their academic rigor, whilst continuing on creatively with their extracurricular activities. Their college dreams are hanging on a thread, and tackling the ACT/SAT tests have been the question of the hour.

When the ACT website opened back up in August, their website crashed due to the overwhelming demand, leaving many seniors defeated without a registered test date. Luckily, the UC schools collectively announced that it would be a test blind year for incoming 2020 applicants, and the future of standardized testing for their schools was on the line. Other universities followed suit, similarly stating they would be following a test blind  module year, but if students have test scores, they are welcome to submit them with their upcoming applications. For those individuals lucky enough to have grabbed a spot for a test date before their website crashed, GREAT! The frenzy heightened as many students opted to fly out of state to take the test in hopes of increasing their chances of getting into their dream schools, by beating the pool of applicants that were unable to sign up for a test due to many test center cancellations.

As students, we are whole heartedly trying our best to navigate all the uncertainties that are being launched at us on a weekly basis. We have accepted our new norm, and ready to dive into pursuing our dreams again. Yes, we have had our share of systems glitching, not being able to submit test answers on time, having to create virtual school club meetings, building meaningful and original extracurricular activities within the confines of our homes, all the while maintaining a competitive GPA.

2020 has not been exactly a walk in the park, but the silver lining is we are learning to shift gears and think out of the box. Nothing is cookie cutter anymore. As students we are learning to connect the dots, and figure out what really spikes our interests, and pursuing meaningful activities while in quarantine. Perhaps the single blessing has been that we have all had to rethink, regroup, rebuild, and find more authentic purposeful ways of leading our lives.