Sask. teens open up about uncertain future amid pandemic

High school students at the threshold of adulthood are preparing for a future that looks more and more uncertain due to COVID-19.

Three Saskatchewan teens opened up about how the pandemic has affected their lives. Grade 11 student Laura Milligan and Grade 12 student Celeste Bird attend Sheldon Williams Collegiate in Regina. Wakpa Mckay is a Grade 12 student at Bert Fox Community High School in Fort Qu'Appelle.

They spoke to CBC Saskatchewan's Samanda Brace about what life has been like with their schooling cut short and without their peers, and what they believe the next year may hold.

Their responses have been edited for length and clarity.

When schools closed

Milligan: Next year will be my senior year, and all of the classes that I'm taking this year that are supposed to prepare me for next year and what I want to be going into further. It's hard to not get the full education and full learning that will prepare me for that. I was also really excited for a lot of things that we had going on at Sheldon. 

Bird: We had started an Indigenous advocacy group at our school so I was really disappointed when all of that got cancelled.

I think the biggest thing that has affected me is not having a graduation because that's a rite of passage for everyone that goes to school and you wait your whole life — 12 years of school — to get to that point and kind of graduate into adulthood. I think that missing out on that is really disappointing, but it's good that everyone's going through the same things and it's not just me.

Mckay: I was picking out my suit for grad and I was preparing for the next step in my life.

Before this pandemic I had a lot of plans for my school. I'm the student council president for my school down here and what I really wanted to do was to have this community get together in May. We were gonna have a carnival, but that really went down the toilet. We had a lot of fun ideas planned for this last semester but it went down the drain, I guess.

How they are looking after their mental health

Bird: I've had a lot more time with not having to work anymore or go to school, just to focus on myself and self-care. So I think that's been really nice, but at the same time for other people and myself, not having social interactions every day, I think is not very good for a long period of time, so I think it's going to be hard to go back into society full force when all this is over.

Milligan: I had influenza A and tonsillitis, so I was in and out of the hospital, and that was really scary for me because my immune system was so low and if I was to potentially get coronavirus, then it could have been fatal for me. So that was a really scary time.

I've been having lots of high anxieties throughout this whole pandemic, mostly because the future is so unknown. So I am constantly stressed thinking about how long this will last, when will I be able to see people again, what's going to happen for my senior year.

When I stay inside, I don't feel as good, but getting out for a walk seems to cheer me up. I really like being in nature so that helps calm me down. I've been just trying to keep myself distracted and busy so that I don't get those thoughts in my head and they don't build up. 

How they are maintaining social connection

Bird: I've been hanging out with some friends from school, but it definitely sucks not seeing teachers every day and your peers that you expected to graduate with this year, and then knowing you're not going to get to see them probably ever again. It's kind of crazy. Not the ending you expected.

Milligan: I've been just talking to my friends on the phone, FaceTiming or keeping connected through social media like Celeste. But it's really different going from seeing all of these people every single day at school, even just hanging out with friends or going out and seeing people, to this where you can't really be in contact with anyone and if you do it has to be from a distance.

Mckay: It affected me positively because I got to spend more time with my family. I would not have had the time with my family originally if this whole pandemic didn't come around.

I started to attend church with them.

I've learned how to garden, too, so that's pretty cool. They taught me that.

We've been making some homemade movies. We take famous movie scenes from some Oscar-winning films and then we try to recreate a famous moment. So that was a good bonding experience.

I'm trying to spend as much time as I can with them before I move away for university.

How they see their futures

Bird: I am going to be participating in the Katimavik national experience (a volunteer organization for youth), which starts in July. So I'm really happy that hasn't been cancelled. I'll be volunteering for five months until December.

After that I'd like to go into Indigenous practical nursing and I'm very worried with this COVID-19 because I struggle a lot with online learning. I'm very concerned that I won't have the proper education that I need to go on to post-secondary because I struggle so much with online learning.

Milligan: I believe that we won't be going back to regular schooling in September, so it will probably start off as being online courses and that's kind of stressful because currently right now at my high school it's not for marks. But that is my senior year, so I want to get good grades so I can apply for scholarships or getting into universities.

Mckay: I'll be moving to Regina. Fort Qu'Appelle is about 45 minute drive to Regina, so I don't want to be commuting every day or whenever I have classes. If they're going to have online classes then I guess I'll probably have to learn through Skype and whatnot, whatever the university has planned. 

Spending this money to go to university, we should at least get what we're paying for. We should get to talk to the professors in person and go to events once in a while, like dances or whatnot. So it's really disappointing, but I guess what can you do?