A birthday is supposed to be one of the best days of the year. During these troubling times, many people missed out on doing something special because of the COVID-19 virus. While there are many who may have missed out on something fun, there were many Patriots who didn’t let COVID ruin their special day.

“I took some friends of mine camping and on a float trip for my birthday and we all had a good time despite COVID,” said senior Gus Krisanic about his birthday. 

While managing to have a good time, COVID still found a way to interfere with Krisanic’s plans.  

“Yeah, we wanted to rent out a lake house, but COVID ruined that,” he said.

While students like Krisanic went out of the area to celebrate, there were plenty more who had just as much fun by staying in. The best example of a quarantine birthday comes from senior Allyson Flake.

“For my birthday I stayed in and made a cake with my mom, my sister, and my friend Jane,” Flake said.

 This was during the height of the pandemic so Flake said she did all she could to protect herself and others while still having a fun birthday. 

“I wish I were able to do something bigger and with more of my friends, but this birthday will definitely be memorable because of how COVID affected it,” she said. 

Another senior who took precautions when celebrating their birthday was senior Lindsey Storey.

“I celebrated with my sister and her friend and Stephanie Hooker,” she said.“We all went to Art Hill so we could be outside and we had a socially distanced picnic, and after we went to get lottery tickets since it was my 18th birthday.” 

While many of our students managed to take proper precautions, you can’t expect all of them to. During these troubling times it can be very hard to have fun, but if there’s one thing Patriots know how to do is party.

“My friends threw me a surprise party with about 15 of my close friends and it was just a great way to celebrate my 18th birthday and see people I haven’t been able to see because of COVID,” senior Anna Kornfeld said. 

When asked why she threw a party during COVID, Kornfeld said, “mainly because it was my 18th birthday and that’s special to me, I would have liked it to be bigger despite COVID, but it was still a great time and I was surprised by the party.”  

Senior Maia Hendricks takes the cake with her birthday celebration however, celebrating in Florida with a few of her close friends.

“For my birthday I spent the day at the beach with Molly Biermann and Emma Reis, we didn’t go out to eat because of COVID, but spending the day at the beach made up for that,” she said.