This year’s graduating class is the group of seniors that had to deal with Covid-19 for their first year of high school. Senior, Raven Campbell can say that she survived through it, and thrived past it.
“Covid hit me really hard actually. I thrive on human interaction and I wasn’t getting enough from my family so I kinda went into a spiral of depression,” Campbell said. “Everybody was so excited to do at home learning and I was just begging to go back to in-person schooling.
Once in-person school came back, she did a few different things around the ridge.
“I was a part of a club sophomore year called the Chick-fil-A club. We basically sat around and ate Chick-fil-A while discussing community projects we could do,“ Campbell said. “I also participated in FFA. I had my own market pig, that got the reserve grand champ award.”
However, throughout all 4 years of High School, Campbell has been part of one thing consistently: Theater.
“So I have done theater, tech theater, and musical theater all 4 years of high school,” Campbell said.
“I learned how to talk and perform in front of big audiences. I got to meet a lot of new and creative people. I personally don’t know where I would be without theater because I can just be myself.”
Campbell is one of the few theater seniors who has been in the department for all 4 years of high school. This alone is a big achievement, as there wasn’t much theater to do over Zoom. Throughout her years in theater, Campbell tried every single part, from acting to lighting to props.
“I would say my favorite thing to do was set. It’s fun to build and design something that will come out to be a beautiful piece of art,” Campbell said. “Then you hear everybody talking about how much they like it and how it works great with the show, and that feels great because we built it all ourselves.”
Sometimes high school is a stepping stone for college, letting you practice and experience what students want to do in the future before it gets serious. Sometimes it’s the opposite, and students spend high school floating around, unsure of what they want to do. For Campbell, it seemed pretty clear.
“I’m planning to continue my education at Stephen F. Austin University, where I’m going to major in technical theater and minor in technical theater education,” Campbell said. “I’ve felt stressed and wanted to quit theater, but I kept moving forward and didn’t. Nothing can replace the memories I’ve made at Vista Ridge Theater, but I can’t wait to keep doing tech in the future.”
Overall, Campbell’s time at Vista was some of the best of her life, but senior year really stood out to her.
“Senior year was the best part. Because I told myself no matter what, I am going to experience everything I can, and I did,” Campbell said. “I was set-head for UIL Theater, I went to more football, baseball, and volleyball games than I can count. Yeah, I was tired, but I don’t regret it a single bit.”
