By: Emmy Moss ‘24

After many canceled plans and a quarantined 2020 and 2021 summer due to COVID-19, many Carrollton students are looking forward to some long awaited travel this coming vacation.

With COVID-19 shutting down the United States in March of 2020, vacation was canceled for most high school students not only at Carrollton, but across the globe. With every country having strict guidelines to decrease the rapid spread of the virus, even if someone felt comfortable and healthy enough to travel, it was not possible.

With the number of COVID cases hitting its first large peak in January of 2021, many were unsure how the summer ahead would be affected. However, with the approval of the vaccine for 12 to 15 year olds in May of 2021, the number of COVID cases in the United States decreased drastically, allowing students to travel safely, especially if they had received the vaccine. Compared with the summer of 2020, a significantly larger number of Carrollton high school students, 53.4%, were able to travel in the summer of 2021. However, 46.6% of students’ vacations were still canceled. Of the remaining students, some vacationed stateside and others locally.

This upcoming summer is highly anticipated as mask mandates and COVID restrictions are being loosened around the globe. So far, only 8.6% of students’ vacation plans for the upcoming summer have been canceled. Of the 91.4% of students who are traveling this summer, 77.6% are going abroad while 17.2% are staying in the U.S.