Despite the irrevocable hardships the pandemic has inflicted on all students, it is important to remember that this is our shared experience of isolation, loss and adapting to new events. This year many seniors and others in the warrior community have struggled with mental health issues along with other monumental losses. From the loss of a loved one, to missing out on traditions such as homecoming skits or daily activities like attending class with your favorite peers, the memories of this past year will forever be with us. Like those in the Lost Generation who dealt with life altering situations like, food instability and poverty during the Great Depression, our generation will have a greater awareness of mental health impacts after this pandemic.

Months away from loved ones and enduring mental fatigue from countless zoom calls, Warriors have bonded together in the events that have altered our lives. During this time Warriors have dealt with experiencing depression, learning how to diet in a way to advance our health and adjust sleep schedules for productivity among many other health conscious discoveries. With this greater understanding of health as a whole our seniors will go onto college and other endeavors aware of the hidden uphill challenges many conquer in a day.

Though this is not the shared circumstance that many wish to endure with others, this experience will further expand the way we conceptualize our relationships. Through social media and conversation, the destigmatization of mental health will continue to pursue. With this in mind, our seniors will go onto college having experienced adverse events and gaining a greater sense of self and inner-strength.

In the realm of COVID-19, high school seniors looked towards the light, spending countless hours dreaming of their future career pursuits and applying to higher learning institutions this year. As seniors go off to college, they seek certainty in the future.

Although it is disheartening to reflect upon traditions absent from our senior year, such as Jersey Jam, football games and pep rallies, it is also a lesson for everyone of why it is important to live in the moment.

Seniors will still move forward with their non-traditional memories; the ones lived in the moment. For example, some of us will still remember the time my lab partners and I became absolutely euphoric when Ms. Blackie told us our silver came out perfectly, a shock given ours looked nothing like any other lab group’s.

Those lived moments that break the day to day grind of daily routines and endless afternoon practices provide us with a small snapshot of emotion, denoting the ups and downs of daily life before COVID-19 introduced us to ever present languidness. For example, the hysteria inherit in the moment, when a friend escapes the flooding K building restroom where they change for athletic practice everyday.

The friendships and battles gained from lunchtime debates and group work are a favorite amongst seniors. During my junior year I recall raised voices floating across the desk, as my group further split into proponents of different answers for our group quiz in math. From these collective memories and experiences we will remember the personalities of our classmates.

The nostalgia and memories of high school have nothing to do with social media or grades. The experiences we truly remember from high school are the lived memories, many of those being moments that are not earmarked as a milestone.

These memories took on new forms during the pandemic. We collectively found that digital schooling and social media could not replace the in-person socialization and community we had prior to the lockdown. The gap present in our socialization this past year causes various challenges to our mental health. As we move forward, remember to connect to others in-person, safely, and create those lifelong memories.

We understand that every single senior is not going to have the exact same outcome to their senior year. Each of us come from uniquely different backgrounds and have a variety of classes, teachers and friends. We all hold individual dreams and particular vocations. This makes every senior’s experience distinctive. 

Facing the trials and tribulations of hybrid learning and COVID-19 was our own special journey; we took on the challenge, giving our best efforts and eventually prevailing to have the best senior year possible. Despite missing out on many full-fledged senior traditions, we were able to roll out of bed at 8:29 a.m. in our pajamas to log onto zoom, have our parents deliver our freshly prepared a la mode lunches directly to us, avoid standardized testing and of course, hours of in-person instruction. 

Together, we learned to adapt, cooperate and come together as one Warrior family.