Schools statewide have closed their doors. Public school students are finishing out their studies this year online. And while the need for such measures is clear given the devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic, nevertheless, it is disruptive.
From changing schedules to unbudgeted meals, the home lives of Georgia’s public school children and their families have completely changed. One of the most dramatic shifts is for high school seniors.
For most of their lives, they waited for this year; many of them even dreamed of it. It was supposed to be full of special moments and memories they would capture on cellphones and in yearbooks and carry with them for the rest of their lives. They’re still making memories, but not the kind anyone ever imagined.
The Class of 2020 has had the rug ripped out from under them.
It might be me someday
Sydney Brookshire, a Habersham Central High School senior, just finished her final season of HCHS volleyball. She was this year’s homecoming queen and was looking forward to her senior prom. She says the hardest part of being out of school for the semester due to COVID-19 isn’t the glitz and glitter that come with the end of one’s senior year — it’s the time she’s missing with her teachers.
“That’s probably what’s bothering me most,” Brookshire says. “I wanted to be able to see my teachers a little bit more.”
While it’s hard not to see her teachers and friends, or go out at all, Brookshire is cherishing the time she has at home.
“With missing all this, I’m really […] thankful that I get time with my family,” she says. “It really sucks to miss senior year, but right before I go to college it’s kind of a blessing in disguise to be able to be with my family for this long.”
Brookshire is planning on a medical career. She’s headed to Emory in the fall to study neuroscience and says this virus has been a reality check. “Things like this do happen, and it might be me someday that has to [treat patients].”
While she’s sad to see the clock wind down on her K-12 career, she encourages her fellow seniors to not take the time they have at home for granted. Look for the good, she tells her classmates.
Keep things in perspective
HCHS senior class president Kellsie Rogers has a similar message for the Class of 2020. She says the best thing family and friends can to do support high school seniors right now is to offer them words of kindness and hope.
“I’ve had people reach out through Facebook and [say] ‘Hey, I know you’re going through a hard time, but when you look back on this, it’s all going to be different.'” Rogers says it reminds her “to push through it, and not just focus on the negative.”
Still, there are downsides to all of this.
Rogers doesn’t get to organize the class of 2020’s remaining events. She won’t get to discuss ideas with the school principal. But she says the worst part is not getting to spend time with her friends at school “one last time” before they go their separate ways.
“None of my friends are going to the school I’m going to,” Rogers says. She’s headed to Georgia State University to major in Political Science and hopes to become a lawyer. These last few weeks with her peers are important to her; she’s about to enter a whole new world.
Jonah Free, HCHS theater treasurer, doesn’t get his senior spring musical. His teachers are going “above and beyond” when it comes to online classes, but he isn’t getting much out of them. “I’m not really retaining any of it,” he says.
The adjustment to online classes is hard enough, but losing all the things seniors look forward too feels worse. “I’m mad, but it’s okay to be mad. It’s completely natural,” Free says. “I feel like I’ve been robbed, but I’m not going to let it force me into a corner, I’ve just got to work through it. It is what it is, you know?”
Grace Wills is this year’s HCHS Valedictorian. Normally at this point in the school year, her main focus would be on crafting her graduation speech. Now she’s nervous about the economy and how that might impact her freshman year in college.
“Right now I’m really lucky to still have my job, so that’s at least one constant that’s stayed similar to life before the virus,” Wills says, “but everything else is totally different.”
Wills has been in theater and dance almost her whole life. Her senior year as a member of the Stage Raiders’ acting troupe and dancer at Clarkesville School of Dance is over. That’s been one of her toughest adjustments. “I miss my dance and theater friends and performing itself, a ton,” she says.
Keeping connected
Though separated by a virus no one really understands and government-mandated social distancing, Rogers says the Class of 2020 can still stay connected.
“There are still ways to be connected and be one senior class, even though we can’t be at school together.”
She advises her classmates to reach out to friends with Facetime or to watch the shows you love with those you’re separated from.
“Don’t dwell on it,” Free says, regarding the senior year he and his classmates had imagined. “You’re just going to get in a mental state where it’s going to get hard to get out, and become almost depressive.”
Looking ahead
Rogers looks ahead to the day when this year’s seniors will look back.
“Once this is over, and eventually it will be,” she says, “we can say we were seniors in 2020 and we had all this taken away from us, but we can say we were part of that.”
She encourages her fellow seniors to reflect on the time they have had together and to put the premature end to their school days in perspective.
“Even though our senior year might be ruined and we have to stay inside and follow all these rules now– if we’re looking at the big picture, what we’re doing is ultimately going to be important to how this thing ends,” Rogers says. “There are people on the frontlines of the medical field, there are people who are struggling through this. We might have lost our senior year, but recognizing all these big-picture things– that’s really important to look at.”
Brookshire agrees.
“As much as these situations break my heart for me and my peers, they completely break my heart for the people that are fighting this every single day.”
Wills believes this pandemic will be a defining moment for her generation. “The economic, political, and social consequences will be far-reaching.”
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