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The coronavirus pandemic changed a lot of things for 2020 – 2021 high schoolers, but it ended up inspiring Benjamin Dixon to study medicine when he graduates from Lafayette Christian School later this month.

Dixon is Lafayette Christian School’s valedictorian.

“It was kind of in my mind beforehand, but [the pandemic] didn’t hurt it, and it kind of helped me toward that decision,” Dixon said. “I always thought science was an interesting field and that I could make the world a better place with it.”

Dixon, 18, plans to attend Berry College in Rome when he graduates. While there, he plans to jumpstart his career as a medical scientist with a focus on researching diseases.

“They have a really good biology program there,” he said. “[Berry College] is also a pretty small school, which is what I’m used to with Lafayette Christian.”

When he’s not looking under a microscope for science class, Dixon enjoys playing sports, especially football, basketball and soccer, as well as biking around LaGrange. He lives with his parents and has an older brother and an older sister.

Dixon has lived in LaGrange his whole life, he said, and leaving it behind is no easy task.

He will be leaving behind memories of playing sports with his friends and going to Charlie Joseph’s. Most of all, he’ll be leaving behind the familiarity of the town he has known his whole life.

“I know [LaGrange] really well, and I’ll miss knowing where everything is,” Dixon said.

But change is inevitable, he said, and starting over in a completely new place is something he is facing head-on.

“At the same, I think it’s really fun to have to go figure everything out [in Rome],” Dixon said.