Adjusting to changes

Basil Phillips, a 2020 Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow High School graduate is doing his best to adjust to a COVID-19 world.

Currently he is working for the the Town of Hanna public works. The job is a good fit for his future.

"When they closed school, it was sort of rough," Phillips said. "It went from a bit of an extended vacation in the very beginning to where it changed my plans on what I would do once I graduated."

Phillips and his classmates didn't get a true senior year.

"I missed out on a lot of graduation things such senior trip, prom and being able to have a graduation party with a big group that included family and friends," Phillips said. "I never thought it was going to last as long as it has. Still, it is what it is."

Phillips was considering going to Laramie County Community College (LCCC) for their program with wind projects.

"I was looking at LCCC for wind farm educational programs, but once this COVID thing broke out I realized that schools might not really be going on in the way I needed to learn, so I decided it would more important to go find myself a decent paying job and get myself into the work force," Phillips explained. "In this time of COVID it makes sense to get what work experience you can since so much has changed."

Although Phillips is happy to be working for the Town of Hanna, he hasn't given up on working for the wind farms. He just believes that, given what he has witnessed through friends in the wind industry, his working for Hanna is teaching him skills that will be useful in the future.

"I have a lot of buddies that are working for wind turbines right now and it is hard for them to get onsite training because they are traveling so much," Phillips said. "They aren't able to get the training like they used to in one place. Before it was three weeks in Portland, Oregon. Now they go to training in Texas, also to Denver and Portland, and it is all because of COVID changing things. It screwed up a lot of jobs, but there are still a lot of jobs in the wind industry that will be there consistently. This is why I opted to work with the town so I get a history of working with machinery, tools and my hands."

Phillips is not optimistic about COVID being gone any time soon without a vacine.

"I'm not liking the way things are going so far, because I am reading we might get a second stage of COVID in the fall and we aren't even done with the first stage," Phillips said.

"Today we are living in a world of wearing masks and gloves, especially when you go to a place like Denver."

Phillips said although he's not upbeat that COVID will be done effecting the world he lives in, he is not depressed.

"I am just living life and doing what I can," Phillips said. "Throughout high school, yeah I wanted to go to college but it all changed and I believe you adjust. I feel for some of my classmates that committed to college to play sports and now we can't even be sure schools will be open, much less play sports. I don't see how football can be played in either high school or college."

His reasoning for football season to be cancelled this season is masks.

"In my opinion, if you have to wear a mask during a game, you have a football mask that will be on the outside of the mask for COVID, a player will be breathing so much and hard that there will be chances of carbon monoxide poisoning," Phillips said. "A player might black out because they can't breathe. Playing sports in a mask just isn't practical."

Phillips did play football in hight school until his senior year before a leg injury.

"Being in the work force has been great for me since graduation," Phillips said. "I realize I am lucky because it worked out for me, but that can't be said for a lot of my generation, which is really sad. Still I believe my friends, classmates and people my age know how to face adversity and will succeed through all this COVID stuff."