We stare at our unworn prom dresses that have hung in the same place for over a year. We walk past our folded sports uniforms that we did not get to put on with our team for one last ride. We stare at the empty stage wishing for one last performance. We wake up and sit in front of the computer for hours, thinking of where we were this time last year. We try to enjoy the last few months we have with our lifelong classmates, some we have not seen in over a year.

This is the sad reality for the class of 2021.

It would be ignorant to say that we are the only group suffering during these troubling times. Any student or teacher knows how lonely and strenuous being in school during the pandemic can be, while suffering a loss of everything that was once looked forward to. Almost every person has been hurt by this virus in one form or another.

Yet, as a senior and a student journalist, I feel a need to advocate for our class.

In every other one of my classmates, I see a severe decline in motivation, energy, and overall happiness. With prom, homecoming, pep-rally, sports, Powder Puff, and may other things stripped away, it becomes harder each day to enjoy being a student.

Many students choose to attend remote class instead of being in-person. While it might seem best to try to soak up every moment of in-person learning, it is a far cry from a real learning environment. Being in-person for school is a brutal confrontation of how depressing school has become. It becomes harder to find motivation for schoolwork and maintaining attendance when so little fun is involved.

Obviously, health and safety measures should be the priority, but the severe lack of interaction between students, robotic-like scheduling and seating, and general quietness and low-energy of classes create long and lonely days.

We have taken a backseat for three years watching our predecessors have their last game, take prom pictures, and have a senior cafeteria countdown. We waited for the day when it was our turn.

Unfortunately, Covid has taken our events away. And it seems as though these milestone days may never come.

We would never ask for anything more than sympathy. With this pandemic, it has truly become clear how the smallest things such as student-teacher conversations, walking to class with friends, and cafeteria table debates truly mean the most.

Although education and safety are the priorities of school, there are countless ways it could be improved. Our spirit week could be recreated, due to its cancellation in the fall. Music could be played at lunch to end the deafening silence of lonely students and boost the mood. And with the weather improving, we could take advantage of being able to enjoy being outdoors for class or mindfulness walks as the year winds down.

We are incredibly grateful for our opportunity to have school at all, but any ways to make our last few months slightly more meaningful would be deeply treasured.

We would never want to discount the deep world problems happening around us, or be tone-deaf to the severity of the situation, but it is getting harder to find the good in these soon-to-be “good old days.”

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