Journal Writing Project: 2020 seniors, it sucks right?

By Corinna Wiemerslage
I know, it sucks. We got the last few months of our high school career taken from us. This is when we were supposed to have our class trip, senior prank, senior prom and our graduations. It’s not fair. We worked so hard for these moments, and for them to be taken from us it almost just doesn’t feel fair. For any grade level, students are missing out on their special moments that happen towards the end of the year. There are around 56.6 million students who were taken out of school (grades K-12) during this pandemic. We are not alone, we are all together during this time. We all are starting to miss school (whoa, I never thought I would admit that!!).
Some positives we can look at — we get to spend time with our family before we graduate and leave the house. We are getting something previous seniors didn’t get, we get to spend quality time with our families before we move on with life. We also are healthy at home doing school. We have members of our school districts that are susceptible to getting the coronavirus, and by missing our last bit of the school year we are keeping them safe.
Some negatives — we feel as if we are surrounded by people who got their senior year, and it’s just not fair for us. We also are missing out on a huge milestone in our life, we don’t get to say our final goodbyes properly to our classmates, and we don’t get to enjoy our final months of being surrounded by our teachers.
But what can we do to help each other? We need to reach out to each other and check in, ask your friends how they are doing on their homework, ask if they need help. Make sure that every single one of your classmates feels like they have someone to lean on. Stay home, don’t go out and see your friends every day. We can all come together and find kind ways to help the students that are in our lives. We are all going through this together, and there are a lot of unanswered questions such as when will we get our graduations, when will we get to say our goodbyes? But the truth is, nobody knows, but we are all in it together.
Not only the high school seniors are being affected by this, many other people are too. This global pandemic is hard for everyone, but as a community we can all come together and support each other even through social distancing.
Next time before you share a senior picture or a moment from your senior year, reach out to any senior in your life. Chances are they are feeling down about their situation this year and need people to talk to. We know this isn’t any of our faults, but we still want our special senior year memories too. We need to stay positive.
Corinna Wiemerslage is a student at Kingsland High School. She is one of eight area students participating in the Journal Writing Project, now in its 21st year.