For Alex Philips and the rest of the Class of 2024, this year was their strangest school experience. The global pandemic has prevented kids from all over the world from having a “normal” school year. 

This would have been Philip’s first year in high school but instead, she spent it in her home with her family attending online school.

“I am very sad that I missed my in-person Valley experience because it seems like a fun school, and everybody normally loves freshman year,” Philips said.

For the select few that choose the part-time hybrid option for the end of this 2020-2021 school year, they will get a small taste of what their freshman year could’ve been. But for the large number that is staying in distance learning, they will just have to wait until their sophomore year to find out. 

“I don’t have an issue with feeling like a freshman going into my sophomore year because I’m friends with a lot of upperclassmen who can help me out,” freshman Cole Kielhorn said.

Even though school has been mostly distance learning, Loudoun County has allowed winter sports to continue. This gave some freshmen the opportunity to be inside the school building for sports, which many freshmen relied on for learning the layout of the school and making new friends.

“Even though we weren’t in school, I still had a great year because sports didn’t get canceled,” freshman Max Randolph who is on the football team said.

Although many freshmen are often nervous about their first year in a new school, not many students think missing their first year will affect them too greatly.

“I think I’ll get used to it pretty quickly next year,” freshman Viola Vangjeli said.“I think we all will make the best out of the next school year.”

  Overall, the Class of 2024 is just grateful because their year could have been a lot worse.

I’m just lucky because I’d rather it be my freshman year than my junior or senior year,” Kielhorn said.