by Courney Suber
It’s often debated which senior class faced the brunt the worst from COVID-19, and I’ll be the first to make a bold and scandalous statement somewhat contradictory towards my personal graduating year: it’s not the class of 22’.
We’re back in school, we have all of our senior events, and as far as I know we’re even having homecoming. It’s seriously a marvel to see how far we’ve come. This time last year juniors weren’t even allowed to go to prom! But in a matter of a month I’ll be bringing an outside date to homecoming. It’s an understatement to say that we’ve made strides towards full recovery from the dangerous social injuries that COVID-19 beat into us.
Now despite this seemingly perfect return to normality, the class of 22’ still has their numerous and seemingly endless amounts of struggles and complaints. From disputes as small as mandatory mask wearing to large events such as pep rallies being canceled, the overall fogginess that precedes ahead over the plans made for the bustling leaders of the future is plenty. And while I can appreciate and applaud the outstanding progress that we’ve made, as a graduate of 2022, or a member of the “2enior2” class, I can also tell you the not so blissful truth of reality.
Everything is going along swimmingly now, but the class of 22’ was gifted possibly the most difficult junior year yet. Junior year is when you start to gawk at colleges, suddenly decide grades matter, and get closer to the sweet and bitter taste that is adulthood. This year’ 2enior2 however were confined strictly to online learning and activities. Gawking at colleges? Do it through virtual tours. Suddenly decide that grades matter? Not quite when the only thing being graded are tests, completely disincentivizing individuals from doing work that prepares you for said tests. The sweet and bitter taste of adulthood? Now it’s just bitter. Kids were shut inside with little to no social interaction for months, they are emotionally stunted in immaturity and teenagerly! But now we’re back to normal, right? We have colleges to fawn over, grades to care about, and adulthood to crave… right? Well the delta variant may strip all of our progress away from us. 2enior2 could easily return to early 2020 all at the cost of a singular cough.
For the most part, the general public will tell you not to fear this harsh reality. School’s are taking EXTRA precaution to keep students safe and secure. Daily cleanings, mask mandates, required vaccines for teachers! … Even with this though, those efforts are completely in vain when you have overcrowded hallways, individuals who refuse to correctly wear their masks, spaces where mask-less-ness is a need like cafeteria’s, and more. It seems that all of our progress could be reverted back to nothing as quickly as it was made. 2enior2 have the most to lose from this, for they’ve already lost most of their high school careers as is.
- How has life as a teenager compare now to the beginning of the pandemic? Is it better or worse?
Despite these reasonable fears and doubts though, we have come a long way since the beginning of pandemic. In the beginning we couldn’t even attend in person school, heck we didn’t even have online school because of lack of knowledge on how to go about such. Now we have face-to-face learning, sports, after school activities, et cetera et cetera. It’s ignorant to deny that things have gotten better, but the class of 2022 still has every right to be majorly concerned.
- Come to a conclusion. Do you see the future looking up? The pandemic coming to a close sooner or later?
And to conclude this entirely too long think piece on the pandemic and being a measly socially undeveloped high schooler, do I see the future looking up? Possibly… but with the Delta variant we may be stumped beyond want or belief. Truly only time can tell what the future may hold, but I personally am hoping for 2ectacular year for 2enior2, the class of 2022.
