Kelsea Wilson

Freshman Skyler Gulino and freshman Molly Bailey converse and laugh at their second lunch. Now that she has been in person for three months, Bailey is feeling more a part of West than she did last year. “In eighth grade, I was [a part of] the virtual Parkway West (middle school campus) program. I hadn’t actually and physically been in person since about November of 2019, my seventh grade [year],” Bailey said.

Seventh-grade Molly Bailey sits in the backseat of her family car, focused on her laptop. Her midterm finals stare back at her as the scenery of the Western U.S. zooms past. Boxes filled with clothes, books and memories are packed tightly around her.

Bailey, now a freshman, took her seventh grade finals on the road trip from California to St. Louis, a 28-hour drive. The move was a week-long process that Bailey described as stressful, more so even than the experience of the pandemic.

“My dad’s in the military and so we [have] moved every three years since I was a little girl. We’ve lived all over the country and right before COVID-19 hit, my family was having some medical issues. We chose to move from California to St. Louis because the health care here is fantastic,” Bailey said.

After her father retired from the military, the Bailey family moved to California where they lived for 18 months before moving to St. Louis in December of 2019, right before COVID-19 hit. As a result of the rushed move, Bailey’s family lived in an apartment where she shared a bedroom with her brother who was a junior at the time, four years older than Bailey.

“I was sharing a room with my brother. It was a two-bedroom apartment, and the age and gender difference was a whole issue in and of itself,” Bailey said. “Just trying to talk and communicate with your sibling is hard enough; I barely ever talked to my brother and we were four feet away from each other every night.”

According to Bailey, the COVID-19 pandemic was a learning experience, more in life lessons than educationally. Between the stresses of moving, family medical needs and quarantining strictly due to those medical needs, Bailey learned to have a deeper level of empathy.

“I think I matured vastly [because of the pandemic]. If you’re quarantined with just a sibling who’s four years older than you and your parents, you just become mature, you’re just with adults. [After] watching the news, it puts everything in perspective. ‘Oh my gosh I got a D’ [becomes] ‘We could all be dead right now, it is okay.’ It’s okay to make mistakes, and everything’s gonna be fine,” Bailey said.

Due to the intense level of quarantine necessary to protect her family during the pandemic, Bailey attended school virtually for the remainder of the 2019-2020 and all of the 2020-2021 school year. As a result, Bailey didn’t get the chance to know her teachers or peers for the last two years. In her travels around the U.S., she has gone through virtual, private and public schools alike and she already feels like she belongs here.

“I think Parkway has done a fantastic job of welcoming new people. I already feel like I know a lot of kids, which is awesome. Parkway [has] really stepped up and been super great with reaching out to me and asking how I’m doing, and that’s really important for a school to do,” Bailey said.

Bailey has moved to Alaska, Virginia, Illinois, California and Missouri over the course of her life. While the frequent moving has taken a toll on her social life, Bailey is proud to say that she has friends spread across the country. 

“It’s very hard to make new friends every three years. The first year, you’re just trying to get by and the second year, you’re kind of getting settled. By the third year I know people, I know the best coffee shops, I know my teachers, I know everything and then I move,” Bailey said.

This is Bailey’s sixth new school and she has learned to embrace the unknown about new schools and overcome the anxiety of the first day. Bailey is a self-declared extrovert, which she says has aided her in mastering the art of the first day of school.

“It’s okay to not know where you are, that uncertainty is okay. Everyone’s new on the first day of school, so I try not to get too worried. After so many [first days], the first day of school, it’s not that new for me. Making friends is something that I’m good at because of moving,” Bailey said.

This positive mindset helped Bailey get through the challenges the past two years. While impacts of the pandemic were felt around the world, Bailey learned to let go of the small things and focus on the moment at hand.

“There’s always somebody who has it better than you and there’s always somebody who has it worse than you. That’s just kind of what I live by, and that applies to everyone. I’m a woman in a free country, and I have access to water literally six feet away from me. I can go to school every day and talk to people every day and there are opportunities, and that’s so much bigger than ‘I moved.’ People move all the time,” Bailey said.

Rather than have a negative outlook on her situation, Bailey faces challenges with optimism and gratitude. 

“I think being thankful for the day is the takeaway from the last two years, really my whole life. You have to be thankful and you need to put things in perspective because the things that you’re dealing with today, the majority of people are not even worried about. They’re not worried if you didn’t make a friend or if you didn’t finish that assignment. You’re the only one who’s focusing on that so don’t get too stressed out about it, it’s okay. Just be thankful that we’re here and we’re in America and we’re safe,” Bailey said.