Typically, high school seniors experience some form of senioritis. They’re exhausted after applying to college, anxious about where they’ll be admitted, grieving when they’re not admitted to a top choice school, dreaming about life after high school, AND lacking motivation to continue managing everyday high school coursework.
Yet, Class of 2020 seniors, living through a global pandemic, are experiencing even greater complexity as they finish high school. Ting, a current high school senior, shared:
Senioritis is no bueno
Ya but I didn’t think it was going to get worse
Now, since her high school closed, she is isolated in her home, away from friends and activities which are what she, like many other high school students, most enjoy about school. Plus, now she’s anxious about potentially cancelled graduation, prom, cautiously celebrating college acceptances, but can’t visit any of her top choices and all the other fun-end-of-high-school activities they’ve been waiting to engage for four years. Class of 2020 students are dispirited, losing morale. Ting’s, like many of her peers, motivation to complete work is even less.
The Class of 2020 is extraordinary. They live through a unique moment in history, which in the short term may disappoint some, anger others, and yet long term will bond them for having survived a pandemic. Their “When I Was Young Stories” will not include snow and steep, uphill walks both ways to school everyday, but will nonetheless define their resiliency.
