We asked readers a few weeks ago to volunteer to have some “super-honest conversations” about how their lives have been altered in the past year. The story below is part of the third installment of a three-week series.

“Stressful,” “crazy” and “unknown” are the words three Brown County High School students used to describe the past year.

Eating mashed potatoes, watching Netflix, learning how to embroider, reading fantasy novels and taking life one week at a time are some of the ways they coped.

High school is already a hectic time for teens, but the last year threw a worldwide pandemic on top of it, too.

When the news first hit Indiana and Brown County Schools went virtual after spring break, concern levels raised for now-18-year-olds Natalie Suding and Megan Bickley, along with 15-year-old Violet Day.

“We thought we were going to have just, like, an extra two weeks for spring break,” Bickley said.

She was in her biology class the Friday before spring break when the announcement was made. The extra two weeks out of the classroom was intended to help prevent spread if people were exposed to the virus during spring break.

“We were like, ‘Oh my gosh. This is going to be so exciting. We don’t have to come to school for two more weeks,’” Bickley said.

“Then, once we realized a couple of weeks later that we weren’t going to come back at all, it was like, ‘Oh. This is serious. This is for real.’”

Day’s concerns increased when going back to school was postponed last spring. Now her concern level is a 4 on a low-high scale of 1 to 5 about the pandemic. It was a 5 when cases were at an all-time high last fall and she saw people not following health guidelines.

Suding and Bickley both worked at Brown County IGA throughout the pandemic. The manager immediately required masks in the store and employees wore gloves to protect them from the virus.

Suding stocked groceries and Bickley was a cashier.

“When I was working at the start of it, I was kind of concerned, like, with people passing you and putting things on the shelves other people touched,” Suding said.

“People still needed food, but it’s scary,” Bickley added.

Customers had lots of opinions about the mask mandate — and at times it was awkward.

“I saw people tell other people, ‘Hey, nice mask you have on,’ when they don’t have a mask,” Suding said.

“I was just, ‘Oh my gosh, this is not good.’”

As a cashier, Bickley interacted with almost every customer. “People will come in and they don’t wear a mask, then they are complaining about it. It’s just like, ‘I have to wear this for eight hours and you don’t have to at all,’” she said.

“People will come in and be like, ‘I feel so bad you have to wear these for your shift and you can’t take them off.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah it is bad, but we’re doing it for a reason. We’re protecting people — ourselves and others.’”

Soon, those not wearing masks were the ones who stuck out, Suding said.

Last school year, Bickley and Suding were taking multiple honors and Advanced Placement courses as juniors. The switch to virtual learning was stressful.

“You had to take the initiative, too, to kind of figure stuff out on your own,” Suding added.

“It’s really hard balancing between being able to handle all of these college classes and trying to learn all of the content in time, then being able to figure out what to do, like how to work online and Zoom meetings, because it was all new.”

Day said learning from home last school year was a nice break from what was going on in the world. “Other than the fact that what was going on in the world was scary, doing remote learning, we still learn as much as we would out of school,” she said.

This school year, Day has returned to the high school for in-person instruction. She feels she comprehends things better that way.

On top of navigating learning from afar and over a computer last school year, Bickley and Suding were dealing with the mental stress a pandemic brings.

Bickley did not have internet at home, so she and her older sister went to the Sprunica Elementary School parking lot to log onto the free WiFi the school district provided and do their assignments. Bickley’s sister was a freshman at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis and had come back home to learn online.

Sitting on the trunk of their car, the Bickley sisters completed assignments — sometimes spending eight hours there. They weren’t alone, though. Other students used the free WiFi and they were able to see friends while remaining socially distanced.

Suding was able to get one of the MiFi boxes the school district had distributed to families at home, but the connection was not always the best.

As people they knew began to get sick and masks were required everywhere they went, Bickley and Suding both became even more concerned.

“We knew people who started to get it. We were like, ‘This is insane.’ It was a weird realization moment of, ‘Oh my gosh, this is actually happening,’” Suding said.

Bickley and Suding returned for in-person classes this year, their senior year.

Bickley tested positive in January after she went to the doctor for a checkup and mentioned she had a stomachache. A rapid test gave a negative result, but that Saturday morning, Bickley’s phone rang and it was the health department.

“I woke up and the health department called me: ‘You tested positive for COVID.’ Well, okay. We’ll figure it out from here,” Bickley said.

She did not have any symptoms other a stomachache, a headache and feeling exhausted. She was out of school for two weeks.

Since Bickley and Suding are friends, Suding was put in quarantine as a close contact.

Zooming into classes at home while everyone else was physically in class was a weird experience, Suding said.

“It was hard because I kind of felt left out and everything. … It was harder because you can’t really talk to people much and you’re sitting in class all day,” she said.

In November, the junior and high schools were moved to the red status of the school’s COVID-19 response plan. All instruction was switched to virtual after a number of students and staff were on the quarantine list for each school, either as a result of people testing positive, or people awaiting test results because they were close contacts of others who tested positive.

Over Thanksgiving break, Day tested positive for COVID-19.

“My whole family had it. We never really found out where we picked it up from,” she said.

She was sick for about a week with a headache and cold symptoms, like a stuffy nose.

In December, the junior high and high schools were put on yellow status, meaning students went to a combination of in-person and virtual learning. The yellow schedule was a challenge due to moving back and forth from in-person to virtual each day.

“It was really hard for the teachers to plan lessons and keep lessons straight, getting assignments in on time and keeping due dates. It was really stressful for everybody,” Bickley said.

“They are both two totally different ways of learning,” Day added. “The lessons we learned during that time it was hard to get a grasp on them.

“It’s been very stressful just because of how many things have switched up. There’s no consistency with it,” Day said about the school year overall.

Not only was instruction a challenge, but so was having a normal final year of high school. Suding is grateful she was able to play a full volleyball season last fall, but like a lot of the last year, the experience was different from any other.

“We had to wear masks, social distancing and we had to wipe down the balls every time we touched them,” she said.

“Being able to have a full season was difficult. You never know, someone can get it on the team and just wipe everyone out.”

The high school did have a fall homecoming game where the homecoming royalty was crowned, and a Spirit Week led up to the game, but no dance could be held. “We can’t do simple events that all of the seniors get to do. It’s all different now,” Suding said.

Suding and Bickley said the class officers are working to make a non-school-associated prom happen this year with the help of parents. It will follow health guidelines and social distancing.

“We just wanted to have something that everyone could kind of enjoy and actually have one for one year,” Suding said.

They hope they get a graduation ceremony.

“We’re trying to plan graduation parties and how many people will be able to go to graduation from our family,” Bickley said.

Both seniors are on track to graduate summa cum laude, but they just received word the annual award banquet and dinner would be virtual this year.

“Which is a bummer,” Bickley said.

“It’s better than nothing,” Suding added.

Feeling anxious was something else the two seniors shared their last year of high school, when they are required to make college choices and pick the next path for their lives. This time, those decisions are being made in a pandemic.

“It hits really hard and it makes it really stressful. There’s just a lot to consider, even the school I want to go to. Will it be open? Can you even go in class? It’s just weighing all of these options can be really difficult,” Suding said.

To balance the stress, Bickley said she finds herself planning her life a week at a time, from work to school to youth group to spending time with her close circle of friends — just focusing on getting through one week before moving to the next.

Suding does research and makes lists upon lists to help ease her mind.

“I really hate the unknown, so it’s really difficult to have all of this anxiety of dealing with everything,” she said.

Suding also found comfort in the simplicity of connecting with a teacher over email if she was struggling with an assignment while learning from home.

“It’s a little glimmer of hope when a teacher emails back. It’s like I am not alone in trying to learn doing some kind of, like, insane Calculus problem, and you’re like, ‘I really hope this teacher will help me out,’ and they do. It feels good,” she said.

Bickley finds comfort in knowing she is not alone in getting through this pandemic and that she can talk about her stress with others because they understand.

“Everyone is going through it too,” she said.

When it is safe to do so, Bickley said she is looking forward to seeing a concert or going to a stadium to watch a sports game.

Masks make it difficult to people-watch, which is something Day looks forward to doing when masks are no longer required.

Suding wants to be able to safely visit with her grandfather who is in a nursing home. Right now, she can only wave at him through a window.

When Day feels anxious, she finds comfort in talking to her mom, watching her favorite show, “Gilmore Girls,” or playing the ukulele and piano.

“My mood has been up and down with the whole thing,” she said.

In the summer, Day was feeling depressed because she was isolated living out in the country with her younger sister at either her mom’s or dad’s house. “After we started going back to school, I started being more optimistic about everything,” she said.

This past year has made Day appreciate her family and holiday gatherings more.

Bickley and Suding both say that this last year has made them more grateful for the experiences they are able to have and the connections they have been able to make.

“I am really appreciating being able to be in school and getting an education, having the ability to be with my friends, even though it can be limited,” Suding said.

Bickley is more grateful for being able to grow with her friends and family.

“Being my senior year, just enjoying the things we do have, like going on a hike, or going out to have a picnic, or going on a trip or something,” she said.

“Just enjoying the time we do have, and we are able to have as a group.”