Junior Kassidy Bush adjusts her microphone, securing it underneath her plastic mask. She takes a deep breath and becomes one with her character. A variety of lines and blocking sequences play on repeat in her head as she mentally prepares for her performance. 

The lights go out. Bush takes her position. It’s showtime.

For Bush, participating in the fall production was the only time she got to step foot on campus as an online student. Over the summer she chose to enroll in the remote program.

“I chose to go online because I knew COVID-19 was still a very prevalent thing,” Bush said. “If the school had to shut down and go online, I wanted to make sure I was doing an online curriculum designed to be online. I’d rather have it meant for online learning and online students then some sort of adaptation.”

The online schedule allows Bush to be more independent when it comes to her education. She is required to complete three classes a day: 1st-3rd on blue days and 4th-6th on gold days. This has been an adjustment for Bush because she is used to the typical, in-person set up from previous years.

“It’s good practice for college, or when I’m an adult in the workplace,” Bush said. “But, it’s also really difficult to keep myself on track and do what I need to when it’s so easy to just go off and do one thing or the other.”

Bush has learned a lot about the importance of time management from this experience. 

“Time management is a good and bad thing because I struggle with procrastination,” Bush said. “Oftentimes I’ll have assignments piling up. But, because of how the online curriculum is set up, I can also work ahead. It really just depends on my will to get things done and have self motivation. It can work for me or against me.”

With the online schedule, Bush is often able to finish her work early. She has used this time to revisit old hobbies including painting, drawing and photography. When it comes to art, she enjoys focusing on subjects like a person, animal or character.

“I’m really just working on practicing, finding my style and learning techniques right now,” Bush said. “It’s really fun for me to explore and try different things.”

Bush is also passionate about theater. Recently, she was involved in the fall production “Our Place”. Due to COVID-19 precautions, Theater Director Rita McClary had a limited selection of shows to choose from. She chose “Our Place” because its vignette style allowed minimal contact.

“A vignette is a story in one scene and vignette plays are multiple vignettes,” Bush said. “There are multiple short stories in a row that aren’t necessarily connected like it would be in a normal play. It’s like each vignette has its own theme and they have something that connects them all to our common theme. But, usually, each set of characters only has one vignette. She had to choose that way because there’s only a few people rehearsing and onstage at a time.”

In Bush’s vignette, she played the character Liberty who was on a date with her boyfriend Cory. During the date, she started questioning everything and realized she wanted to go out and explore the world. Cory was happy where he was and wanted to stay, so they broke up. 

Bush was grateful for the opportunity to participate in the show.

“I know online students really aren’t allowed in the building during school hours,” Bush said. “I wasn’t sure if they’d allow me to be in school for things like the play, but I was able to. Something that’s really kept me grounded is being able to participate in these things that I love so much and still be around the people that love the same thing I do.”

Overall, Bush has learned a lot from this experience. 

“Don’t take things for granted,” Bush said. “There’s a lot that I’m so fortunate to have and that I often forget. Living in a developed country in the same area my whole life, I take a lot for granted. I don’t realize how much I have. This has kind of taught me to be really thankful for what I get and I can work with.”