Everyone in Apex Friendship High knows about what happened to the class of 2020. Halfway through the school year, their senior year got ripped from their grasp without warning, and they graduated with no parking spots, no out-of-school lunch passes, no extended fees on library books, and worst of all, no prom. Everyone remembers those struggles, and if anyone forgets, there will still be a wall in the school with the 2020 seniors' names painted on it as a memorial to their lost semester. But what about the class of 2021?
Of course, losing an entire semester of the last year of high school should be considered an important loss, so staff members tried to compensate with personalized goodbye signs, a drive-through graduation ceremony, and of course, a wall dedicated to the class of 2020. Then came graduation, where 2020 seniors got heartfelt send-offs, videos made by celebrities like John Krasinski who hosted a virtual prom in their honor, and great appreciation for everything that they sacrificed that year. The juniors watched it all happen with the hopes that, when their time came next year, they would get the same send-off, provided the circumstances remained unchanged. Unfortunately, the class of 2021 has been struggling now more than ever with applying to colleges, keeping up with virtual classes, juggling work with school, and trying to maintain sanity without having any in-person contact with friends. So, my question from the beginning of this year remains unchanged: what will be the class of 2021’s wall?
“[The] class of 2020 entered senior year with excitement, confidence, and hope for the future. [The] class of 2021 entered senior year with apprehension, confusion, and chaos, not even knowing if we’d be back in school or not,” said Ivelys Garcia Sanabria, an AFHS senior. This year, out of fear of contracting a potentially deadly virus, the majority of seniors have elected not to return to school. Even those that have come back haven’t been able to step foot into the cafeteria, auditorium, library, or classrooms, unmasked and surrounded by friends and old classmates and take a moment to just appreciate the fact that they got so far. Not one senior can walk into a classroom the same way as before and think, “I’m a high school senior. I finally made it.” After years of insecurity, fear, panic, and anxiety weighing heavily down on the underclassmen, the 2021 seniors finally earned their place, did their time, and waited for their moment to arrive. And when that moment finally came into view, without any warning, it slipped away as time began falling through our fingers like grains of sand. The more us seniors tried to hold on, the faster it vanished right in front of our eyes.
Although the class of 2020 couldn't finish their senior year in school, they did at least start it. The same can’t be said for the class of 2021. And yet, seniors have yet to see any personalized goodbye signs, senior photos in the yearbook, or walls with their names written on them. Yes, the budget doesn’t allow for all of these luxuries to be provided, and yes, every other aspect of the world may be considered the “new normal,” but graduating high school under such difficult circumstances shouldn’t be passed over. The experiences that the 2021 seniors have had to go through shouldn’t be considered less meaningful or strenuous than that of the 2020 seniors. It would be like an older sibling reaching an important milestone in their life and having everyone fawn over how impressive and wonderful it is, and then you reach the same milestone a few days later and by then it seems like old news. As a middle child, I can tell you, nothing hurts worse than being ignored. If that doesn’t get us some version of the class of 2020’s wall, I don’t know what will.
Let’s take a look at one of the most important parts of senior year that changed for the class of 2021: college applications. While the class of 2020 had plenty of time to ask for help before the pandemic, that class of 2021 had to deal with all the confusion of Common App, FAFSA, and scholarships from home. In addition, Shakthi Ravichandran, another AFHS senior, said, “For those of us applying to college, the class of 2020 got to take full advantage of gap years, which skews the number of people from our class who get to attend those same institutions.”
Naturally, the class of 2020 should be remembered. However, that does not mean that the class of 2021 should be forgotten about or cast aside simply because they didn’t do it first. Speaking as a high school senior, this year has been the most difficult, perplexing, genuinely messed up year of my life, and seeing how much time and effort went into making senior year special for the class of 2020 and not having the same be done for us doesn’t help. Maybe the class of 2021 doesn’t need a wall, (besides, we don’t know how long this quarantine will last and we’ll run out of walls in the school eventually), but asking for some form, really any form of that gesture to remember those whose senior year got ripped from their grasp just as they had finally arrived seems like a fitting request. On behalf of the 2021 seniors, I ask — what will be our wall?
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