I am a senior in the year 2020. 

There’s a long year ahead of me. And there are many events ahead that I fear, and many I can not wait for. And many that I missed. 

As a senior, I tend to think of these certain events — Prom, Graduating Ceremony, etc. — as rites of passage, if you will. Just given the mindset of most seniors and how high school is “our life,” we don’t see these events as privileges. It is expected that we get to participate in these activities.

 As the first part of second semester came to a close, we were leaving for spring break knowing that once we returned it was most likely gonna be “full throttle” until the end of the year. Then, what seemed to me as out of nowhere, COVID-19 got to the point where people considered it a global pandemic and there were many shutdowns and restrictions to gatherings of people to help reduce the spread. 

Even when this was happening, however, did anyone think our prom or even graduation ceremony could be taken from us. 

After it was determined that we wouldn’t be returning to campus for the remainder of the year “remote learning” began. This way of learning had many pros and cons for someone like myself. 

Pros: I have difficulties staying seated for ninety minutes at a time and would also consider myself a very extroverted person, so I always enjoyed being the focal point in the room, which caused me to get in a lot of trouble throughout the entirety of my high school career. So being at home made it impossible to get into trouble. I also am definitely addicted to nicotine and have received a total of 8 M.I.P’s (Minor in Possession) issued by our SRO (school resource officer). So to put it short having the freedom of when I did work and for how long and where was an absolute goldmine. Privilege of the year. I couldn’t have asked for more.

But this did come with difficulties. Since I could choose when to work and for how long and there was never anyone “on my a**”, for lack of a better phrase, it made completing assignments very difficult as I am an avid procrastinator.

All in all, missing the last few months of my senior year wasn’t that devastating. I would’ve enjoyed senior prom and having a “no holds barred” graduation ceremony but I did like the freedom of the learning and the ability it gave me to pick up more hours at work. 

This was kind of an uneventful goodbye to a lot of people I knew for many years and grew up beside. It is a rather tough pill to swallow that I will probably never see the majority of my class again.  

Although it was a lackluster ending to the year I still graduated and look forward to future challenges I’m going to accept, like a full time job or classes at the university.