Tommy Hendricks

Name: Tommy Hendricks

Grade: 12

Position: Senior Class President

1. How are you and the other Class of 2020 Student Council members working to interact with seniors and soften the blow of the coronavirus pandemic?

“Student Council has been helping with the Ranger Google Classroom page. We have also been making individual slides for [all the seniors] with their name, college, intended major, and senior photo for Instagram.”

2. What have been the highlights and lowlights of your quarantine experience?

“Personal highlights of quarantine would be getting accepted to [the University of Michigan], not waking up at 6 am, and being able to workout and play music whenever I want. Lowlights would just be not being able to see my friends.”

3. What is your background in music, and how has it led you through these challenging times?

“I play percussion, and luckily, I am using a school marimba at home to practice. I have been learning some new repertoire, and that has kept me occupied. I also have been practicing snare drum with some of the other FHC Drumline members.”

4. What developments in your life have sprung from the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine? Would you have expected this?

“I have been able to spend more time doing what I love, and I have been around family a lot more. [However], I don’t feel that, as a person, I have changed too much.”

5. Have you found yourself in any way strengthened by the challenges of this pandemic?

“I have been able to work out more, so in a literal sense, yes, I have been strengthened by these challenges. In all seriousness, it’s taken more discipline to do the right thing when no one is around and there aren’t teacher authorities enforcing work or anything.”

6. What about the atmosphere of the world and community during this time shocks you the most?

“I am shocked by the people who act like they are above the law and know more than the professionals. I am shocked by the selfish nature of a lot of people that have been going out and being with people. I am, however, positively shocked by the generally serious reaction to this pandemic; it’s nice to see the community in large come together for a common cause.”

7. If you had known this pandemic was coming, what do you think you would have done differently?

“Had I known this pandemic was coming I would have cherished my time with my friends a little more.”

8. As a senior, do you have any advice for underclassmen during this pandemic and as we come out of it?

“Do the right thing. Don’t act like you’re a victim or you had no way to improve yourself. Just do the right thing, and make the right choices in how you act every day, and we will all come out of this pandemic as a better version of ourselves.”