By A. Mei & S. Vi
The coronavirus pandemic has altered everyone’s way of life. For recent Galileo alumni as well as current Galileo seniors, the pandemic has affected not only their everyday life, but also the way they look at their future.
Graduating from Galileo means moving on to the next step of life, for a lot of students, the next step includes entering college. Some students planned for college because it’s what they were told to do, while others didn’t really think there were many options besides going to college. With the pandemic giving everyone lots of time to think, some Galileo students and recent alumni are now reevaluating their plans and are making alternative plans outside of going to college.
Senior Helen Cai said this pandemic gave her an opportunity to sit down and ask herself what she really wanted to do after high school. Before this pandemic, Helen had her heart set on going to medical school to achieve her dream of becoming a nurse. However, when the entire world felt like it was put on pause with people stuck at home, the one shred of hope Helen held onto was thinking of all the places she wanted to travel to after the pandemic was over. Watching people reminisce on their past adventures pre-pandemic caused Helen to develop a severe case of fomo (fear of missing out). With those thoughts, and nothing but time, she created a plan to achieve that goal. Helen wants to travel the world instead of going straight to college aft. Helen realized that now more than ever, “I still have the opportunity to live my life.”
2019 Galileo graduate, Krystal Vi’s plan after high school was to complete City College, but COVID gave her a new purpose of what to do in her life. “Before quarantine my heart was set on school and that’s all I ever wanted to focus on was school. But during quarantine, I actually found a passion for nails. I’ve been doing nails for my friends and I love giving people the experience they deserve. I’m currently saving up money to open up a nail business,” said Krystal.
While sheltering in place, Krystal fell in love with painting nails by watching nail videos on Tik Tok. She purchased her first nail kit in July, turning this new found interest into a passion. She first started practicing on herself, then she started practicing on her friends, which then became her new clients. She does nails in her room now but is also currently working to save up money from her part time job to invest in opening up a nail businesses store where she can begin to do nails professionally.
Xufei Zhao graduated high school in 2020 and it seemed like her only option after was to go to city college and major in business. She hoped of becoming a CEO one day to please her parents. Xufei landed on the waiting list of the University of California Riverside which then she found out that she got accepted. She was extremely excited when she got her letter in the mail but opened it with mixed feelings because now she had to make a choice on what path was best for her.
She wanted to please her parents but also wanted to make her childhood dreams come true. That was to become a therapist, earning a degree from an outstanding college, while also enjoying the dorm life like many others. As time passed on, Xufei realized that her parents could not decide what she wanted to do with her life and that only she could.
Xufei said, “Before quarantine, I’ve always wanted to satisfy my parents and do city college majoring in business, since it was a good way of saving money, but during quarantine I realized I actually want to make my dreams come true and become a UCR student, majoring in psychology.”
