To say the beginning of my 2020 year of school was a crazy ride would definitely be an understatement. With the pandemic happening right at the end of my third quarter it held me back from going back and swiftly completing my fourth quarter on time. My fourth quarter started at the beginning of summertime, and it was strictly online. The quarter I did fully online was my electrical course so not being hands-on and not being able to actually hold the tools in my hands didn’t make it easy. It caused a massive learning curve, but it was one that I needed to overcome. Then New England Institute of Technology made it possible for my lab classes to be in person, but my lectures were online, which was great at the time. I would have done anything to get back to start working with my hands again. But there was a catch - everyone needed to stay distanced, which made it hard to watch when my instructor would demonstrate how to do a task that was discussed in our online zoom lecture. The dorms were still closed so I had to commute from Martha’s Vineyard to East Greenwich which is in Rhode Island every Monday and would stay in Rhode Island in a hotel until Thursday when my lab classes ended. Now that the dorms have opened back up it has been much easier and less stressful because I don’t have to worry if the boats will be canceled or have to deal with the drive twice a week. Because the school closed the dorms for winter break when I go back to school on January 11th, I will need to quarantine for two weeks because Massachusetts is a hot spot, and because of that I will sadly have fully online classes for those two weeks again but it is a precaution that is needed to be done. I know that this has been a curved road to the completion of my classes at New England Institute of Technology but I am quite literally in the home stretch before I graduate and get into the field and start working and expanding my knowledge. And I couldn’t be more grateful for the scholarship that I received that has truly helped me overcome the long drives and the back and forth on the boat every week.