Over the past year, we have experienced countless “once in a lifetime” events: the storming of the United States Capital, a global pandemic, and most shocking of all, Mr. Westermann starting an Upper School meeting on time on April 1st, 2021 a date which will live in infamy. 

While this groundbreaking event might seem like a good thing on the surface, many members of the Potomac community consistently implement the extended time in the waiting room into their schedules. 

“I’ve been using all of this extra time in my day to run,” said sophomore Charlie Ortman. “I aim to get about 15 miles in before I am released from the waiting room, but my personal record is 23.”

“Before last Upper School meeting, I was able to re-read the entire Harry Potter series three times,”  said junior Marley Schwarz. “In fact, I had so much time that I’ve decided to write my own Harry Potter book, where Harry and Ron have to use the Imperius Curse to teach the juniors how to park.”

While some students have taken the time to train in their respective sports or analyze literature, others have taken the free time to push the boundaries of science.

“While I was waiting for one Upper School meeting to start I just had this idea to create a 3D printed brain-controlled prosthetic arm, so I went out to get some parts and got to work. The actual 3D printing took nearly 30 hours but by the time I finished putting everything together, I was glad to see I was still in the waiting room and didn’t miss anything important,” said junior Ben Choi senior Eric Lovallo.

Despite the lost time in the waiting room, this day will most definitely be one for the history books. It was a testament that anything, I mean anything, can happen if you put your mind to it. Who knows, maybe one day we’ll even see John Djorup show up to A block physics on time!