Elle Mallett is a senior at PN-G. On a normal school day, she is involved as varsity twirling (3 years), co-head twirler, symphonic band (4 years), Purple Pride Band secretary, National Honor Society, HOSA President (2 years), T.R.I.B.E. member (2 years), and Indians Give (2 years). This is her #NDNSatHOME story.

Q: What’s the first thing you want to do when things go back to “normal?”
A: ​One thing I definitely want to happen is our graduation ceremony. I just can’t wait to see everyone and have that moment together and know that even though we are having to go through rough times at the moment, we made it.

Q: What’s one positive thing you think you can pull away from this situation?
A: ​I have learned that we should appreciate school, and how blessed we are to have such a nice school that cares about us and carries out such big traditions. Another thing is how much appreciation nursing staff and doctors deserve. When you watch the news you see so many of them uprooting their own lives to go to highly populated places where coronavirus is at its peak, without even thinking twice about what could happen to them.

Q: What have you learned about yourself while distance learning has been in place?
A: ​Something I have learned about myself during this quarantine is that I do not like being at home this much! I miss my friends and being able to see everyone in the halls at school.

Q: If 2020 had a theme song, what do you think it would be?  
A: ​“Keep Your Head Up” by Andy Grammer.

Q: Have you taken up any new hobbies with all the free time? What are they?
A: ​A big thing I have started doing has been coloring … I have bought so many adult coloring books because it takes a lot of time to do one page and makes the day go by much faster.

Q: What’s your favorite distance learning class and why?
A: ​Senior HOSA class is definitely my favorite learning class, because even though we are not together, Ms. Fontenot still sends us videos of surgeries and we are still able to learn new things about the medical field that we did not know prior. She also set up a Google Doc where we could talk to each other and tell our favorite memories from this year, which I really enjoyed.

Q: Finally, what message would you like to give to your fellow classmates?
A: ​None of us ever saw this coming. We left for Spring Break, not knowing that that would be our last time to be at our amazing school. We worked so hard for 12 years to end our senior year at home. Even though we have been given these odd and horrible circumstances, does not mean that we can come out the other end a better and stronger person because of it. We will always be known as the class who had to overcome so many obstacles, but we did it!

If you’d like to tell us your #NDNSatHOME story, send an email to: [email protected] and we’ll send you a list of questions. Be prepared to send us a photo of yourself.