Like everyone over the past year and a half, Eva Casey has had to endure her fair share of viral setbacks due to the pandemic.

But the Chimacum grad said she has plans to make viral lemonade out of 2020’s sour lemons.

Eva Casey — the daughter of Monica Casey and William Short — said when the pandemic first came knocking during her junior year at Chimacum Junior/Senior High School, she had already been spending less time at the school due to her studies in the Running Start program through Peninsula College.

But when her senior year began to roll around, she found herself longing for the milestones that usually mark one’s entrance into the post-high school world.

“When you are a teenager, you grow up with those coming-of-age movies and those young adult novels where high school seems really cool and fun,” Casey said. “But my junior and senior years, it was just kind of un-notable.”

Cornerstone events like prom, homecoming and senior pranks, Casey said, were waylaid by COVID-19 precautions, which makes for a rather unceremonious departure into the great wide world.

“Missing out on those senior year celebrations kind of made the transition to college and moving a little more scary, because I saw prom and the graduation ceremonies and all of that as kind of a proper send-off,” she said.

“When you’re transitioning between major life stages, prom and these other activities act as a way to help students cope with that change.”

But, Casey added, she’s not going to dwell on what’s been taken by this pandemic. Instead, the graduate will be looking for those silver linings.

“When I get upset I just tell myself, ‘At least I didn’t peak in high school,’” she laughed. 

Casey added that the Running Start Program had inadvertently prepared her for more than just college, it also had the unintended side effect of priming her for a pandemic.

Whereas some of her counterparts in Chimacum may not have had nearly as much experience managing their time outside of the classroom and tackling the rigors of distance learning, Casey was ready thanks to her Running Start classes. She credited her online classes with taking the shock out of the sudden switch to distance learning. 

Casey pointed to a couple of Chimacum School District teachers as being particularly influential in her education.

Brian MacKenzie and Barbara Parent, Casey said, not only taught her favorite subjects — history and French, respectively — but the educators also worked to engage their students in the classroom, too.

“They were really good at teaching the subjects. I’m really thankful that they’re likable teachers, because if you have a favorite subject, you can have a teacher that just kind of kills it for you,” Casey said.

“Both Barbara Parent and Brian MacKenzie did a really good job at making these subjects fun and engaging.”

MacKenzie, Casey said, would often give college-style lectures to his AP History classes, something she said she appreciated, along with his in-depth lessons that brought historical events to life. 

“I personally think that when you’re learning about history, you do kind of have to tell it in a story format,” she said. “You can’t really explain historical events abstractively.”

Casey enjoyed Mackenzie’s teaching so much that when her Running Start schedule left her with an open period, she asked if she could sit in on his AP History classes. Of course, MacKenzie obliged.

Her love of history has set Casey on a path to study cultural anthropology in college. After earning her degree, she said she hopes to find employment in her field somewhere on Washington’s coast.

“My ideal job is to be on a research team for a museum,” she said.

“I would like to pursue areas of cultural anthropology, history, linguistics,” Casey added. “I know that it probably won’t make up a main, bread-winning job, I do want to be an author — hopefully a published author — later in life.”

Casey said she was going into her field of study knowing full-well that she may have to work hard to earn her place among the other professionals in her field.

“I know my area of interest is definitely not STEM, so it’s not going to be the highest paying job, but I’m definitely doing it out of a passion,” she said.

As for what keeps her hopeful when considering the rest of her years ahead, Casey said she’s eager to pursue her studies unhindered. 

“I hope that I can pursue my areas of interest academically, with hopefully no other major interruptions,” she said. “I don’t really like planning way too far ahead, because then you can’t always roll with the punches as well.”

“I’m hopeful and excited to be more in control of how my life goes,” Casey added.