Senior year–the year of high school you remember forever. The year you celebrate friendships made at age 5 in kindergarten. The year when it all comes full-circle, a feeling of accomplishment. 

I had been looking forward to my senior year from the beginning of high school. It seemed like a chance to feel honored by teachers and students in younger grades. Like a chance to feel worthy of what you had worked toward for so long.

Senior year is graduation. It’s the senior dinner dance, the all-night party, senior week, pep rallies, senior cafe, the hightops, the stoop, senior skip day, sitting in the front row at all of the football and hockey games, senior sunrise, and tailgate. These are all of the traditions that make senior year at SHS so special. 

But for the class of 2021, sadly, these traditions are canceled.  This year, we do not get any of it. Something every single one of us had been looking forward to since middle school is canceled. Instead, we are going to school with only half our grade while sitting 6 feet apart in every class. We are eating our lunch at a desk in the small gym–no hightops during lunch or study.

One-way hallways and Google Meets two days a week is not how I pictured senior year. Even though we are grateful to be going to school, a sense of normalcy is absent. 

The bonds we worked so hard to create with our teachers, coaches, and classmates feel lost this year. With the risk of another school shut down and a two-week quarantine, any socialization is cut off. Our grade as a whole has no chance to bond together this year. 

Although the senior class is going through a difficult time, we are going through it together, which could make our bond grow stronger. The chances we have to be together are slim, but there is no doubt we will make the most of them. 

To the classes below us, use this pandemic as a reason to bond with your classmates. Go to that sporting event or that pep rally when you finally get the chance. Because you are going to cherish those memories forever. High school is about all of those special events, but it’s also about the people you spend time with. 

Do not take anything for granted, and as simple as it sounds, high school really does fly by. To the senior who explained this to me during my freshman year, I didn’t believe you–until now.

It is currently January of my senior year, and it feels like I was a freshman just yesterday. High school is a time to grow and experience new things, and I am thankful for the memories it has given me, and I will hold onto those forever.