Freshman Ava Bacon despises being stuck indoors. 

She’s only content when she is under the blue sky enjoying the fresh air and cool breeze. Luckily, with golf and snowboarding taking up a large part of her life, she’s able to indulge in the outdoors quite often.

“[My favorites parts of golf are] being outside,” Ava said, “improving myself in something that I love, and having fun [while] not having to focus on anything but what I’m doing.”

Ava started playing golf when she was around seven years old, so she’s had more than enough time to improve her game and swing.

“My whole family has golfed since forever,” Ava said, “My grandpa is super good, so he taught me how to play. He, my uncle, and my mom really taught me how to swing. It’s just something that we all do.”

Ava is extremely dedicated to the activities she loves. She played golf as a recreational activity for most of her life, until her freshman year when she decided to join the high school golf team. Golf is so prevalent that she even recently played while on vacation with her family.

“I just got back from Miami,” Ava said, “I was there for two months. I practiced golf a lot, I took care of my little cousin, and just walked around Miami and enjoyed everything.”

Ava’s second favorite activity—snowboarding—takes up most of her winter months, and she usually finds herself at Cannonsburg hanging out with her friends. 

“My best friend and I snowboard almost every day during the winter,” Ava said. “My friend lives in that area, so we’ll sometimes go on walks behind [Cannonsburg] too.”

But Ava is excited for summer; she can’t wait for the warm weather and time spent by the water. Summer also allows her more time to travel, and she values the ability to do the things she loves most in the various place she travels. 

Ava has found that COVID-19 has opened up more opportunities for her to travel since online classes make it much easier to stay up to date on work while gone, but she’s also found other benefits throughout her experience with the pandemic.

“I think that COVID-19 built my family closer,” Ava said. “I also started working on myself and focusing on myself—just doing whatever I want.”

But in most areas, she has run into the downsides of COVID and online classes; she realizes it’s difficult to keep up on her work and find the right motivation to complete it.

“You can’t be in a classroom and get influenced to do it,” Ava stated. “When you’re by yourself, you have to influence yourself; I think that’s the hardest part of being online.” 

While focusing on completing current assignments and school work is important, Ava also makes sure to look ahead. She is excited for her future at FHC and is hopeful about her upcoming life. 

“I’m excited to experience new things and learn a lot of lessons,” Ava said, “High school is when you learn the most amount of lessons, and I’m excited to see what the world has for me.” 

Despite the hopefulness for her future, Ava does face doubts like most teenagers in high school. The stress of school, especially during a pandemic, can burn anyone out, including those that are usually capable of pushing through anything. During these times of insecurity, Ava reminds herself to stay focused on her goals and future. For those that are still struggling, Ava encourages them to keep going. 

“Push through it; let’s finish this year strong,” Ava said. “Only a few more weeks left; if you don’t try, then you’ve already failed, but if you at least try, you’ll never fail because you’ve tried to improve yourself.”