I’m sure that by now, you’ve seen hundreds of posts written about being a senior in 2020. The devastation that has been brought upon us due to COVID-19 is a hot topic among not only us teens, but among the majority of society. It’s a hard time for everyone, everywhere.
As soon as they cancelled school here for two weeks following March break, my friends and I were panicked. Sure, in previous years we had dreamed of getting a few extra weeks off school, but not this year. This news had come only a week after receiving the news that our trip to Europe had been cancelled, a tough blow for those of us who wouldn’t get another opportunity to travel for at least a few years. The real panic however, set in when the government extended our time away from schools until May at the earliest, although now it seems we won’t be going back at all. They started putting plans in motion for online school and said that all of us who were set to graduate would. So, yes, I will still be graduating high school, I guess you could call me a high school graduate now, but it’s not a graduation. It won’t feel the same.
Now, we have these older generations, such as our grandparents, telling us that they went through much worse and that we need to get over it. Yes, there were generations who missed their graduations because of wars. No one’s saying that didn’t happen, or that what’s happening to us is worse. But, throughout our 13 years of school, we dream about two days. Those two days are our motivation, they keep us going.
The first, is our prom. Us girls get to dress up in these amazing dresses, get pampered and spoiled with our hair, makeup, and nails. It’s the one day in our lives where the high school drama doesn’t matter. We all get to be princesses for the day. It’s a dream come true. This year, we don’t get that. We don’t get to experience that with all of our best friends, and maybe even that special someone.
The second day, is graduation. Walking across that stage to receive your diploma in front of your family, friends, and peers is something we’ve only dreamed of. And now it seems like that may be all we get to do, dream about it. We worked hard for that moment, spent hours studying, writing papers, taking notes. We’ll all get our diplomas, but not the way that we deserve after all that work.
So, yes, other generations have had it worse, but for us, right in this moment, it’s one of the worst things to happen to us. It’s a huge deal to all of us, and although you may not see it that way, be kind to all 2020 graduates. They didn’t deserve to have the days they dreamt about taken away from them, and they don’t deserve to be told to stop complaining about it.
Next year, we’ll all be off doing something. Some of us will go to universities, others to college. Some will immediately go out into the work force or military. Groups of friends will be separated, some staying near home, others travelling across the country, or even around the world. We will all be thrown out into a world we do not know. A world we aren’t truly prepared for, how could you prepare yourself properly for something you don’t know? We were supposed to have a few more months to prepare ourselves for this. A few months to make memories, have fun, and be children for potentially the last time, together with our friends, before our whole world changed. But we no longer receive this right of passage. It’s been ripped away from us and there’s nothing that can be done about it.
So yes, we will cry. There will be some break downs, I’m sure I’m not the only one of us who’s mental health has gotten severely worse over the past few weeks. But, we are strong. We will get through and we will all go into the next stage of our lives. So, please, stop telling the class of 2020 to deal with it, or stop complaining. They need the chance to grieve. To grieve the loss of senior year without the judgement and without being harassed by those who need to be there and support them.
Socially Awkward 