Junior Lauren Mock is keeping busy this year. Lockdown had forced her to set aside most of her extracurricular activities, and now, Mock is able to jump right in where she left off.

“School has been taking up a lot of time, but I think it has given me something to do, which I like, because during covid I was going crazy because there’s nothing to do,” Mock said.

Mock has joined many clubs and other extracurricular activities during this school year.

“I’m on the dance team, I swim, I was in soccer, for clubs, I’m in Chess Club, Computer Science Honor Society, Cyber Patriots…and Girls Who Code.” 

Mock is very involved in the dance team, she is one of the three captains and has many responsibilities.

“There’s our coach who basically just handles all of the emails and professional stuff, and that’s my mother,” Mock said. “There are three captains, me and two seniors. We make all the dances and teach them and pick the music and stuff.” 

Mock agrees it’s nice to be back in school and said that she “missed it so much,” and “likes getting to see people again.” Sophomore year, she stayed active over the winter with swimming, and played soccer in the spring. 

“It was better than nothing.” Mock said.

School wide events are being affected by adaptations to covid regulations, Mock said they are going smoother than some in the past two years.

“(It changed) a little bit but, I wouldn’t say in a completely negative way,” Mock said. “It’s just different, not in a bad way.”

Junior year is known for its rigorous workload, Mock agrees it may be the most difficult year of high school.

“Yes, absolutely. Well, I can’t say for certain, because I haven’t done senior year yet, but yes, so far yeah, and I’m not looking forward to getting deeper into the year. It’s just more work.”

Mock has grown from her time in school and has learned a lot about herself, like how to manage her responsibilities.

“I feel like it’s (school) definitely given me a lot of skills like time management, communication, how to know how I’m feeling, and how I get work best done. So I think it’s a lot of work but also think it’s worth it.” Mock said.

Mock has had to completely change her mindset to succeed in the constant changes of life. 

“I stop procrastinating…It just makes me more anxious to think about doing it than it does to actually do it,” Mock said. “So if I have time, I’ll do it rather than put it off… it’s just like the realization that it was worse for me, and worse in general, to do it later rather than now.”