CLARKS SUMMIT, Pa. — As northeastern and central Pennsylvania gets back to some semblance of our pre-pandemic life, we're starting to realize all the little things we've been missing for the past two years.
For high school students, some of those little things were actually pretty big things; one of those little things was back finally.
For some students in Lackawanna County, it's Career Day at Abington Heights High School.
For years it is a staple of the spring semester as seniors determine their next move after graduation.
Jobs, vocations, and the military are all represented to give kids a first-hand account of what may lie ahead for them.
"So you can kind of figure out your future and what career path you want to go down," explained Marc Pacyna, senior.
But this essential part of high school has been missing for the past two years.
And, coincidentally, it was the last career day in this gymnasium when the world started to change for these students.
This is Abington Height's first career day in 25 months.
The last was on March 12, 2020, and if that date sounds familiar, there's a reason.
Because within 48 hours of March 12, every school in northeastern and central Pennsylvania would be closed.
"That was like the end of our entire year, pretty much. That was just about the last thing we did," said Griffin Price, senior.
Price attended career day as a sophomore then.
Little did he know the rest of his high school career was about to be turned upside down.
"And I think it was even harder transitioning back. I thought coming back after regular life was really weird," he said.
Amanda Nitowski is a career counselor at Abington.
She knows better than most how important it is for the kids to be able to resume in-person career day events like this.
"The last two years, we've kind of had to keep them in-house. Either bring people in over zoom to give them experiences," she said.
WNEP was proudly a part of Career Day at Abington Heights, just as we were on March 12, 2020.
Dozens of future journalists touched base with us about careers in the TV news biz.
Check out WNEP’s YouTube channel.