| Editor’s Note: Over the next weeks and months, Emmaussports.com will be spotlighting senior spring sports student-athletes at Emmaus High School who have had their final athletic year cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Today we spotlight senior Laurel Widdoss (LW) from the Emmaus girls track and field team with our Q and A session: Q: How are you coping during these difficult and uncertain times with the Coronavirus pandemic? LW: I am simply trying the best I can to stay positive and hopeful for the future during these times. I’m using this time to explore new hobbies and become even more excited about the opportunities that await me and my fellow classmates once this all ends. Q: What’s been the biggest challenge for you day to day? LW: I think my biggest challenge each day is finding things to do to make sure I don’t just let the days pass by with no meaning. It’s easy to fall into a habit of feeling hopeless in times like these, so ensuring I stay busy is the way to avoid this feeling. Q: What are you doing to keep busy? LW: In order to stay busy, I’ve been exploring many new hobbies, exercising, and I also try to get outside and enjoy the sunshine as much as possible. Even though I can’t physically be with my friends at the moment doesn’t mean I am disconnected from them. I make sure to check in each day with my friends through Facetime so we can all remember that though we’re alone, we’re alone together. Q: How disappointed are you that there will be not be a spring sports season? LW: I am extremely disappointed that there will be no spring sports season. Senior year is what we have been working towards our entire lives, it was supposed to be the year that our accomplishments and hard work were finally recognized and celebrated. I know that my fellow senior teammates and I were greatly looking forward to participating in all the senior traditions this final track season, such as senior night, our final track meet, the end of season banquet, and pulling our senior prank on our jumps coach Coach Labar. Although we will not be able to participate in any of these activities, we will still leave Emmaus High School as much a team as we would have with a season. Q: What will be your favorite memory from your high school sports career if the season gets cancelled? LW: I think my favorite memory from my high school track and field career will be just how much of a family the team is. Although the track team is one of the largest teams at Emmaus, it is still such a close-knit group of people. The coaches genuinely want to see all their athletes succeed, and they put so much time, effort, and passion into our team. I think our senior class always had a special relationship with all the coaches, being able to joke around and laugh with them, and I will always look back at my years with them with love. Q: What are you future plans after high school? LW: I have committed to Clemson University in South Carolina to study graphic communications. I do not plan on continuing my athletic career at a competing level in college, but I do plan on competing in club and intramural sports. Q: What’s the best advice you can give to your underclassmen? LW: I think the best advice I can give to the underclassmen is to not take the time you have in high school for granted. This is something I remember an upperclassman telling me when I first entered high school, and I rolled my eyes at the statement. Now that I have finally reached the conclusion of my four years here at Emmaus, I realize just what they meant. You don’t realize just how fast the years pass you by, and just how much you grow. Especially at a time like this, it’s important to appreciate every moment you have, because you never truly know when things will change suddenly. As someone who will never walk through the halls of Emmaus as a student again, appreciate every walk in the hallways with your friends, every teacher that makes learning a little more bearable, every school dance and pep rally and sports games. High school is an experience, so why waste it wishing you were out of it. |